


The New Squirrel

by SolamenteCelia



Category: Furry (Fandom)
Genre: F/M, Skunks, Squirrels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:55:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26156122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolamenteCelia/pseuds/SolamenteCelia
Summary: Ferris is the new kid in school and feels left out until he runs into—literally—a girl named Celia. Feelings start to develop, but there's just one problem: she's a skunk, and he's a squirrel.
Kudos: 18





	1. Wednesday, September 30

Ferris jogged slightly through the hall, reaching his locker only a little out of breath. He fumbled with the combination lock, briefly forgetting the numbers and looking around sheepishly after a few failed attempts. Finally, it clicked open and he stuffed some books into his bag for the first class. 

He shut the locker and fastened the lock before spinning on his heel and bumping straight into a poor skunk who was simply walking by. "Ah, fuck! I'm so sorry! Are you ok?" he asked, a little frazzled already.

The girl spilled all her books directly onto the floor. Her tail flicked in annoyance as she muttered, "Fuck." She knelt down to start scooping the textbooks back into her arms. Celia looked up at the squirrel who had caused the mess. "Wait, you're the new guy, aren't you?"

Ferris bent down to pick up a textbook and held it out to her. He looked a little surprised that he was recognized. It was a big school, and he hadn't met many other people yet. 

"Y-yeah, I just transferred here at the beginning of the month. I'm Ferris," he said, moving to hold out his hand and realizing that he was holding her textbook in the other. So instead he extended the book out to her, an embarrassed expression fixed on his face.

She took the last book from him and stood. "I'm Celia. And don't look so surprised. When you've been here as long as I have, you notice an unfamiliar face." She adjusted her grip on the books and looked around, anxious to get to her next class on time. "Well, just look where you're going in the future, ok?"

He nodded sheepishly. In a sea of new faces, they all tended to blend together for him, so he wished he could place where he had seen her before. Shrugging it off, he noticed her looking a little antsy. He cleared his throat. "Uh… what's your next class? It might be close to mine. This place is pretty big and I'm always getting lost, but maybe your class is close to mine."

For most people, it might have been seen as a come-on, but the pleading look on his face told Celia he was being entirely genuine.

"Uh, it's physics," she said. "Room 401. Is your class near there?"

He looked contemplative for a moment, and then nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I have biology, and I think those are pretty close together! I think…" his brow furrowed. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Do you, uh, mind if I walk with you?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Celia said as she got walking. "So, uh, do you find yourself in a rush and bumping into girls often?"

He couldn't help but give a laugh at that, speeding up a bit until he was walking alongside Celia. "Rushing? Oh yeah, I can be pretty bad for it. As for bumping into girls… " he tapped his chin a bit. "I think my clumsiness is a bit more gender-neutral," Ferris finished with a grin to her, hoping a little humor might take the edge off an admittedly terrible first impression he made on her.

She chuckled. "Well, glad to hear you're not a clumsy misogynist. I believe you, though, when you say you don't pick who to run into. If you did, I'm sure you wouldn't have chosen a skunk, huh?" She used a bit of self-deprecating humor to show that she wasn't upset with him.

She could hear a snort come from him before what was honestly a pretty adorable laugh. He grinned again. "Yeah, I suppose so! Though you don't seem the type to stink up a hallway on purpose, seeing as you're so kindly showing my dumb ass to my own class."

They entered the wing of the school that held the science classroom and a flash of recognition came to Ferris's eyes. "Yes! That's the bio room right down there!" He pointed, as if she wasn't the one who had attended this school for years. 

"Yeah, I know," she scoffed. "I took biology last year, so I think I know where it is." She stopped just outside of Ferris's classroom. "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you around then?"

He supposed he deserved the snark and flashed her another grin. "For sure! Thank you so much! You really saved my ass, I actually didn't realize there was a faster way here. It was nice meeting you, Celia!"

With that, he scampered off, narrowly avoiding a tiger student who shook a fist at him as he ran past.

  
———

  
It was lunchtime, and Ferris sighed. Most kids went to the cafeteria, so he decided to go down there today and see if he could get to know anyone. He had sat down with some kids but found himself tongue-tied, and said nothing as they talked amongst themselves. Eventually he had walked off to sit alone. He idly poked at the mashed potatoes on his tray, sighing a little.

Celia was about to join her small group of friends when she noticed the bushy-tailed boy sitting all by himself. She knew she'd feel guilty if she didn't, so she went over to sit by at his table.

Plopping down her tray across from Ferris, the skunk sat down and said, "Hey, clumsy boy." She picked up her fork. "Knock anyone else's books out of their hands since this morning?"

The sudden tray drop snapped him out of his reverie, causing his tail to bush out even more. After a second, he cleared his throat. "Hmm, no books, but I had to borrow a ruler from someone and knocked over my pencil case in the process. Everyone looked. It was very awful." He gave her a bit of a smile, but clearly he was a bit bothered by the memory. He put his fork down and pushed his tray away a bit, leaning back in his chair and looking at Celia. "What about you? Crack any mysteries of the universe in your physics class?"

"Only the mystery of how many tiles are on the ceiling of the physics room," Celia said. "176, if you were curious. God, that class is boring." She took a bite of her fish. It was flavorless cafeteria food, but it would fill her up alright. "Well it sounds like you're still working on settling in here. You make any friends yet?"

The question struck him like a sack of bricks. He stared forlornly into his mashed potatoes and sighed. "Unless you count our collision as the beginning of a beautiful friendship, nope. I don't know what it is. Moving somewhere totally new, halfway through the year… everyone already has their friends figured out, and I need to start from scratch. I can't seem to make enough of a connection with anyone. It's frustrating."

She shrugged. "Well, it could go anywhere, so only time will really tell. You seem nice, though, so I like your chances." Celia smiled at the squirrel. "And not everyone has their friends 'figured out'. Some of us kind of have a stigma surrounding our species, so we aren't really given the chance to get too close to anyone…" She stared into her lap for a couple seconds before realizing just how heavy she'd just made the conversation. She immediately looked back up at Ferris with a forced smile. "But, I mean, I'm fine. There's plenty others like me."

As she looked back up, she could see a bit of a perplexed expression on Ferris' face. He didn't expect her to bring it to such a deep place, but it was almost refreshing in a way. After a couple weeks of shallow introductions and platitudes from new acquaintances, it was nice to have a real conversation with someone.

He smiled back at her. "Well, I'm sure anyone who gets close to you would be very lucky!" He beamed at her. "You seem really nice, too. I hope we can get along. I know I'll be trying my best."

She smiled up at him. "Thanks, Ferris. And for real, I'm not totally alone here. I mean, the friend group I usually eat lunch with includes plenty of girls of other 'undesirable' species like me—there's a porcupine, a hyena, even another skunk, though she's more trigger-happy than I am…" She tilted her head to the side. "Really, it's kind of confusing why you're not sitting with one of the more popular tables. Squirrels are pretty well liked, aren't they?"

His mouth opened, closed, opened, closed, as if he was trying to start five sentences at once. He gave a little sigh and composed himself. "I suppose we are. People don't avoid me or anything, but…"

He laid his hands on the table, tapping a little bit as he tried to figure out how to put it. "I'm not really good at… talking to people, I guess. People I don't know. And this school is really big. It has at least twice, maybe three times the students my old school did. All of my friends I knew my whole life. It's different here. Everything moves faster. Everyone talks differently. They make jokes that I don't really get. I feel like an outsider a lot of the time."

He gave her another smile. "Maybe I should run into more people. That seems like a good way to make a friend, at least so far."

"Oh… I-I'm sorry. I didn't realize that it was such a change for you to come here. Did you have to, like, move far, and that's why you started classes in the middle of the school year?"

Ferris nodded, obviously done with the food on his tray. "Yeah, kinda. My dad used to own a grocery store where we lived. It was a tiny town, and then some big company pushed him out of business. My mom ended up getting a job offer here—she's a lawyer—so I had to transfer here. It's not really a big deal, since the year is already halfway over, but I feel like a fish out of water here…"

"Well, I guess that's a feeling you and I have in common…" Celia muttered as she took another bite of her food. "Maybe that's why we connected so quickly—affer the physical connection, of course, when you ran into me. Because we both feel like we're left out… Goddammit, this is way too deep of a conversation to have with a guy I just met!" She smiled and shook her head.

After a second, Ferris started to laugh, his face lighting up. "My God, isn't it? But it's nice, too. It's the realest conversation I've had at this school! So thank you. Really."

Suddenly, a buzzer went off, causing Ferris to jump up a little in surprise, tail again bushing up. "Oh, damn, lunch is over."

He picked up his tray, giving her a big grin. "Thanks again, Celia. Let's talk again soon. I gotta get to PE. The teacher scares me a bit and I'm worried about what'll happen if I'm late to that one!"

"Heh, if he gives you shit, let him know that you're friends with Celia," she smirked. "It's a bit of a story. I can tell you later. Just get to class." Celia picked up her tray as well.

He cocked his brow at that, but decided that was something to ask her about another time. He gave her a wave and went to drop off his tray, fluffy tail swishing back and forth happily as he went.

  
———

  
Celia exited the school through the front doors. She was looking down at her phone as she walked, so she didn't see her new squirrel friend, whom she practically walked right past.

The squirrel had been leaning against a railing on the staircase outside the door as he waited for her. He had taken a moment to glance at his own phone, just barely looking up in time to see her walk by. He tucked it into his pocket and jogged a little, slowing as he caught up to her.

"Celia! Hi! How was the rest of your classes?"

Celia jumped just a bit as she heard her name called and accidentally dropped her phone onto the concrete below. She stopped where she was standing, not even making an effort yet to pick up the device, and glared at the squirrel. "You love making me drop shit, don't you?"

The squirrel stopped in his tracks, wincing as the phone hit the ground. "A-ah, shit… I'm really sorry! Is your phone ok?"

She knelt down and picked it up. Sure enough, there was a nice, big crack running halfway across the screen now. It turned on, but the crack was quite visible. "Dammit…" Celia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

The squirrel's tail fur stuck up on end. _Way to go, idiot_ , he thought, you _make your first friend and break their phone the same day_.

Ferris stammered a bit, eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Oh, God. I-I'm so sorry! I can pay for the repairs! Well, not right now—I don't have a job—but I can get one and pay for it!" he said nervously, obviously looking very embarrassed.

"Dude, Ferris, chill out," Celia scoffed. "I'm not gonna spray you or stop being friends just because you cracked my phone a bit, ok? We're cool." She had to start by assuaging his fears of being sprayed, as in her experience, that's generally what people seemed to fear most when they inconvenienced her. Celia tucked the cracked phone into her back pocket. "I was probably gonna get a new one sometime soon anyway, so don't sweat it."

The mention of spraying gave him a bit of a surprise. He realized then that the possibility hadn't even crossed his mind. He still looked at her tucking away her newly cracked phone with a bit of a pained expression.

"I just… feel bad, y'know? For something like that to happen. So, I'm still sorry. But I'm glad you're not angry. And I'm sorry for running up and spooking you. I just was waiting for you to come out and got excited, and-" _Wait, wait, WAIT! You already said WAY too much!_

"Um, I mean, I spotted you and—" Again his voice catches, realizing there wasn't much he could do to turn that one around.

"Wait, what?" the skunk chuckled as she moved to sit down on a bench meant for students who were waiting to catch a bus. "You were waiting for me out here?" Celia couldn't help but giggle some. "Like, why?"

His tail bushed out and he could feel his face heating up. But he knew trying to brush it off would be worse than just owning up to it. "Y-yeah. I was. I wanted to talk to you again. Maybe it's just because you're the first person I've really connected with here, but I wanted to see you before going home. I guess that's a bit weird, isn't it?" he said sheepishly, adjusting the strap of his backpack as he stood next to her. Not too many kids were waiting for the bus yet. He lived pretty close to the school, so Ferris usually walked.

She looked to be thinking for a second, but then shook her head no. "Nah, I feel like I might do something similar if I were new to a school and only made one friend so far… Well, do you want my phone number or something?"

Ferris's ears perked up at that, his tail twitching behind him. "Oh, yeah! Absolutely! It would be nice to be in touch with you outside of school. I get bored at home easily. My folks are usually out till late and there's not much to do but mess around at home."

He pulled out his cell, letting the skunk enter her info into his contacts before shooting her a quick text containing a little silly emoji face so she could get his number as well.

She pulled her cracked phone out and checked her messages: "🤪" from unknown number. "Thanks," she laughed as she typed "Ferris (squirrel boy)" into her contacts.

He laughed back, sticking his phone back into his pocket. There was a bit of a silence, though not an uncomfortable one. He piped back up, "So, do you live far? I just live a few blocks away, maybe ten minutes or so."

"Oh, yeah, I live a bit further than that. I actually have to drive to school. If you don't feel like walking home, I could give you a ride." She pulled her car keys out of her backpack and spun the keyring around her finger.

Ferris raised his brows. He had never learned to drive, simply through circumstance, so he nodded vigorously. "Yeah, that sounds awesome! That would save me a lot of time. Thank you so much!"

"No problem!" Celia stood up and started walking toward the school's parking lot. Before long they were coming upon a somewhat ugly, red car that was of a model that came out at least a decade ago now. "Sorry, I know it looks trashy," Celia said. "It runs well, though."

Ferris looked at the vehicle. He had expected something a bit more flashy than that, given that she was a city girl. All he could do was laugh. "That's fine! Honestly, it reminds me of home. Every car was at least ten years old. Most people just cared about the mechanical part."

He smiled, touching the roof a little. "It suits you, in a way. Not trashy, but a bit of a rough exterior, but still works great on the inside."

_Uh, what? Dude, come on. Was that supposed to impress her?_

She looked at him with an eyebrow raised as she opened the car door. "What… are you saying about me?" she awkwardly scoffed. "Are you saying I have robust internal organs? Uh, thank you, I guess." She sat down in the driver's seat.

He shook his head at himself. "I dunno. Trying to say you have a good heart… I guess."

Ferris climbed into the passenger seat, turning away from her a bit to hide his blush. He scrutinized the upholstery intently, trying to give himself a bit of space from the embarrassing comment.

"So… do you have any siblings?"

"Hold up," Celia said. "You think I have a rough exterior?" She seemed a bit hurt as she turned the key and started her car. "Do I really come across… like that? I mean, I was pretty forgiving when you made me drop my books and crack my phone, right?"

He shook his head, "N-no, I'm not saying you're mean or anything! I think you're really nice. But, yknow… you're a bit sarcastic. Considering everything I've done today, though, I guess I deserved it…"

His head was down a bit, clearly a little ashamed of the dumb comment he made. "Look, I'm sorry. I was just tryin' to say something witty, but I didn't really think it through. I'm sorry."

She chuckled and shook her head. "It's all good, man. We all say dumb shit sometimes." She looked over her shoulder and backed out of the parking spot. "If I didn't know any better I'd guess that you're a bit flustered to be around me, so let me just reiterate: I don't want to spray you."

Ferris shook his head at that, looking up from his lap at her. He took a moment to study her face as she turned to look out the rear window and was suddenly struck by her profile. She really was one of the more attractive girls he'd spent time talking to. His nerves and gaffes had distracted him from realizing that.

He cleared his throat a little before replying. "Y'know… I'm not really worried about that. I never really was. I'm sure you hear that lots, but honestly it didn't even cross my mind. I don't like assuming the worst in people. So I know if I do get sprayed, I'm probably gonna deserve it." He chuckled.

"You'll only deserve it if you're actually trying to attack me," she said. "I promise, I don't spray people for any reason other than self-defense, which is pretty much obsolete at this point because everyone knows never to attack a skunk. But I am glad to hear that's a concern that never even crossed your mind." She smiled at him for a second before returning her attention to the road and driving out of the parking lot.

He shook his head, "God, I'd never ever do that! Anybody stupid enough to do that deserves a spraying, that's for sure." Ferris smiled back at her, feeling his cheeks heat up again as she looked his way.

 _What am I getting all worked up for? She's just being nice. She just met me today_. He looked out the front windshield. "I live at the end of Oak Street. Do you need directions?"

"Oh, Oak?" Celia said, surprised. "That's crazy! I live in that same neighborhood myself. No, of course I don't need directions!" She was too focused on driving to notice how red the squirrel's cheeks were getting. "Growing up, this one girl I was friends with lived on Oak Street, so I used to walk to her house all the time."

Ferris smiled, happy he wouldn't need to explain where he lived in an area he barely knew. He watched the street poles and people zip past as they drove down the road. He knew he would get home quick, but part of him wanted this car ride to last longer, even by just a little bit.

He found himself at a loss for words, not sure how to continue a conversation without it seeming forced. But again, unlike most times, this one was a comfortable silence. He thought a little about his parents and their new jobs before turning to Celia, suddenly curious.

"Hey, what do your parents do for work?"

"Oh, my mom's a nurse. My dad, though, it's actually kinda funny," she smirked. "My dad works an office job during the week, then he's a bouncer on the weekends!" She covered her mouth with her paw as she giggled a bit, keeping one hand on the steering wheel. "It's just funny, because he's not even a buff guy, and even I'm taller than him!"

Ferris laughed at that, picturing an ornery little skunk hoisting out a big lion or rhino from the bar. "That is funny! He must be pretty tough regardless. Maybe the thrill makes up for the boring office job!" he snorted.

"Yeah, I assume it must! It does kinda suck sometimes, though, when he comes home late at night stinking like hell just because some drunk idiot couldn't accept that he wasn't allowed in the bar… Still, probably sucks way worse for the drunk than for my dad," she chuckled. "So, what does your dad do now? You said your mom was a lawyer, right?"

He nodded, still giggling a bit from her little story about her dad. "Yeah. She got asked to join up at some local personal injury firm. Dad has been working as management at the grocery store close by, but I think he's planning on starting a business again. Who knows what he's gonna do? He's a smart guy, but he doesn't exactly have any degrees or anything." Ferris shrugged a bit. "I have an older sister too, but she's at the state college right now, studying some kinda science. Biochem, or something."

"Oh, right, I forgot that you asked earlier if I had any siblings. No, I'm an only child. And hey, glad to hear your dad's working on starting a business. Sounds like he deserves it after how that big corporation fucked him." She slowed down as they approached the house at the end of the street. "This is your place, right?"

They pulled up to the modestly sized home. Ferris nodded, "Yeah! Good job finding it!"

He scooped his bag up, opened the door and stepped out. He bent down and peeked into the car at her again. "Thanks again, Celia,"—he paused, not sure if he should continue on before deciding to do it anyway—"for everything today. I'm feeling a lot better about school and stuff. If you want, I'd really like to hang out again tomorrow."

He averted his eyes from her a bit after asking, baselessly worried that she might suddenly realize he was a weirdo and wanted nothing to do with him.

"Yeah, of course!" she assured him, smiling. "I'm just happy I was able to help the new kid. Text me if you need anything else, or if you just wanna talk, ok?"

He nodded happily and waved, closing the door and skipping up to his front door, fishing his keys from his pocket as he did so. Once he had lodged them into the door lock, he turned around and waved at Celia one last time before slipping inside.

Once inside with the door closed, he sunk against the wall, covering his face and sliding down until his butt hit the floor.

 _What is going on with me?_ he thought to himself.

Ferris's mom walked into the foyer. "Hun?" she said to the squirrel. "What's wrong? Don't tell me the kids at this school are bullying you now…"

He raised his head from his hands, embarrassed that his mom had seen him. He looked up to the red squirrel woman and shook his head. "N-no! Not at all. I actually…" He gave a little smile. "I actually made a friend today! She just gave me a ride home."

"Oh!" she said, delighted. "It's a girl, huh? That's exciting!" She sat down cross-legged in front of her son. "So, tell me what she's like, and why you look so defeated."

He smiled a bit wider, thinking back to the day. "She's really nice. A bit sarcastic but she is really forgiving. And it's funny, I kinda…"—he took a second—"I kinda made her drop her books. And her phone. But she was really cool about it. I also said something really dumb and she laughed it off."

"Wow." She grinned. "I thought I remembered you being smoother with girls!" She stood up and offered out a paw to help Ferris stand as well. "I guess that got lost somewhere in the moving process, huh?"

The squirrel gave a little huff, taking the offered paw and hoisting himself up. "C'mon, Ma. I had one girlfriend in middle school for two weeks. Don't tease me!"

He slung his backpack over his shoulder and headed to his room to get homework out of the way. It was his night to cook dinner, and he knew he would be too tired to do the tedious school work if he waited until later to do it.

  
———

  
After parking her car in her family's driveway, Celia walked inside, hung up her keys by the door, and sighed as she slung her backpack onto the kitchen table and contemplated how much homework she'd have to do.

Standing at the kitchen counter was a lithe skunk, one that could be described as "short", munching on a sandwich. All the ingredients were still laid out as if he was planning on making another one. He swallowed his mouthful and spoke up. "Hey there, killer. Want a sandwich?"

She felt her belly for just a second. "Yeah, sure," she said as she pulled her laptop out of her backpack and set it down at the table. She pondered asking her father for help figuring out how Ferris felt about her, but she didn't know how to phrase the question.

He expertly assembled the sandwich, a trademark skill of a man who needs to eat quickly between jobs. Sliding it over to her on a plate, he took a look at her, and gave a little smile. "You know, when you were little, you always had a million questions. But sometimes you just didn't know the words to ask them. You would get a look that almost looks like the face you're making right now." He slid out a chair for himself and plopped down in it, looking at her expectantly.

She looked over at her dad. "I fuckin' hate how you can read me," she sighed as she opened up her laptop in an attempt to distract herself. "There's this new boy I just met at school, and… Dad, how do boys act when they have a crush on a girl?"

His brows rose at that, and he leaned back in his chair. "Well, depends on the boy, I suppose. You know Tim and Gale down the street? Been together their whole lives. Tim used to tease her and pull her hair when they were kids. Uncle Ross would relentlessly hit on his wife, and I suppose she was into that, and he won her over. When I met your mother, all I did was crack jokes to her. Won her over with my sense of humor." He grinned wide at that. "This boy, you think he has a crush on you, then?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "He just seems to get really flustered and nervous whenever he's around me, but, I mean, I'm probably just reading too much into it. He's new to our school, so I bet he just feels awkward now that he actually has someone to talk to." She picked up her sandwich and bit into it.

Her father nodded, keeping quiet for a moment. Finally, he said, "Well, that's certainly possible, dear. I'm sure plenty of guys very flustered near pretty girls. But you're right. He might just have the new school jitters."

He cleared his throat a little. "How do you feel about him, though? Is he bothering you?"

"No, he's not quite bothersome… even if he did break my phone." She took her smartphone out of her pocket, set it down on the table and powered the screen on so the big crack across it would be obvious. "Don't worry, it was just an accident."

He gave a laugh at that, getting up and pouring himself a coffee. "Sounds like he's really working his way into your good graces!" He leaned against the counter again, sipping from the mug.

"Like you said, he's probably getting used to the place. You've only known each other a day. I'm sure he'll calm down."

"Yeah, you're probably right… Oh, and I didn't even mention this, but he's a squirrel, anyway. I know how you and mom would feel if I didn't end up with another skunk, so just forget I said anything." She pulled up her homework assignments on her computer.

Her father sputtered on his coffee at that, lowering the mug and wiping his mouth with his arm. Suddenly, the timer on his watch went off. "Shit. I have a conference call I need to make."

He went close to her, wrapping an arm around her in a side hug. Smooching the top of her head, he said, "Love you, sweetie. I don't mind you being friends with this boy, but if he starts getting fresh with you, let me know."

He left it at that, taking his coffee with him into his home office, where he would take care of runoff work from the office.

She rolled her eyes as he ran off. She was a little annoyed that her father didn't at least say something like, "Well you know I'll support you no what." On the other hand, though, this was just about the reaction she had expected. With another sigh, she started going over the homework she'd need to do.

  
———

  
An hour or so later, Celia's cracked phone dinged, showing her a new notification. As she opened it, she saw a photo she'd recognize of a biology work sheet, with the caption "UUUUGH".

Ferris: hey ^^ been a while, hope u didnt miss me too much haha

Ferris: this crap with protein chains sucks i think i missed the class they talked about it

Ferris: can u help me

Celia: Ah fuck, it’s been a year since i took that shit

Celia: I can try to dig out my old worksheets on it tho

Celia: “protein chains”? Do you mean amino acid chains?

Ferris: i guess the teacher said both so im confused but what else is new haha

Ferris: 🤪

Celia: Lol poor squirrel boy

Ferris: did u get home ok btw?

Celia: Yeah yeah all good

Celia: Almost ran over a squirrel on the way home. A non-anthro one, I mean. Made me think of you lol

Ferris: >:o

Ferris: that could have been my long lost brother! 🤣

Celia: I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works... But don’t worry! I swerved a bit and missed him, so he’s still good lol

Celia: Found my peptide bond worksheet!  
Attachment: 1 image

Ferris: sick! thx a lot u really saved my ass

Ferris: hey r u busy after school tmrw

Just as Celia was sitting back down at her computer to resume her homework, her phone buzzed again.

Celia: Uh I don’t think so. Why?

Ferris: theres a burger place downtown that we didnt have in my hometown and i wondered if u wanted to go

Ferris: my treat

Ferris: consider it as making up for spooking u twice today haha

The skunk sighed heavily as she thought out what to write next. She tried to make it sound casual and not too much like she was accusing him.

Celia: Haha you sure that’s the only reason?

Ferris: ofc! here i am in misery over the pain i cause u today and try to make it right and u hit me with such slander!

Ferris: rly tho pls let me buy u a burger! it’s the least i can do

In his computer chair, he was nearly curled up into a ball. He was being genuine about repaying her, but he didn't realize it would have come off another way.

Besides, despite his feelings, it didn't really matter anyway. There was a reason he didn't tell his mom she's a skunk.

Celia: Haha cool just checkin. And seriously don’t feel so bad about a dumb phone!! I talked to my dad about it and he said I should be able to upgrade to a newer model this month

Celia: But yeah anyway, a burger sounds good!

Ferris: great! 

He was about to type "it's a date!" before furiously deleting it.

Ferris: i’ll c u tmrw!

He practically chucked his phone onto his bed, putting his head down on his desk. But even then, he couldn't stop himself from smiling.


	2. Thursday, October 1

As the bell for first period was approaching, Celia was walking down the hall when she saw the familiar red squirrel struggling with his locker. It seemed like no matter how many times he correctly entered the combination, the thing just wouldn't unlock—a known issue with the lockers at their school.

This time, she decided it was her turn to spook him. She quietly approached from behind while he was intently focused on getting the locker to open. Then, at the same time, she brought her paws down firmly on his shoulders and shouted, " _Squirrelly_!"

_Goddamn thing, fucking stupid lock fucking— goddaMMIT SHIT!_

Finally, the lock popped open and he took a hold of the handle, just as a particular skunk made her move. He jumped at the sudden shout, swinging the door open suddenly and knocking himself in the nose.

After a quick moment, he let out a big laugh, clearly unbothered by the stunt. "Good one, Celia. You got me good this time!" he chuckled, rubbing his tender nose.

She burst out giggling at his exaggerated reaction. "Ah, shit," she laughed, "I didn't give you a bloody nose, did I?" Celia reached out and gently felt his nose to be sure she hadn't broken it.

Ferris removed his hand, letting her take a look, but was surprised as she touched his nose. He stood stock-still, trying desperately not to blush. He averted his eyes from her, trying not to look directly at her and give himself away. "I'm fine! Just a little bump. It doesn't feel like it's bleeding."

"Ah, good," she chuckled. "Didn't want you to go around saying 'Skunk girl broke my nose!' That'd probably make people think I did something else to you." She smirked and fixed her bra strap as it had started to slide down her shoulder. "Sorry, by the way, for scaring you. I just had to get back at you for yesterday."

Ferris's eye followed her hand to her bra strap, lingering on it for a moment before tearing his eyes away before she noticed. Hopefully. Flashing her a big grin, he nodded. "I get that. Totally deserved." 

He started walking towards the science wing, trying to follow the same route from yesterday. "Hey, thanks again for helping me with the homework. You really did me a solid. When we get to that burger joint, I'll buy you all the food you want!" He flashes her a wide grin.

"No problem." She smiled at him. "I knew saving all my high school homework assignments would come in handy one day." She looked over her shoulder at Ferris's locker as they walked away from it. "Oh, and it's not just your locker that's super shitty and never opens. Probably about half of them here are like that. You just gotta keep trying and yanking really hard."

He blinked for a second, and then breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "Thank God! I thought I was just the stupidest guy alive!"

He laughed a bit at himself as they walked. He seemed a lot more calm today, less jumpy. He gave a little yawn, stretching his arms out. "So, you planning on eating again in the cafeteria today?"

"Yeah, I was planning to. I mean, we are seniors, so we're allowed to leave school and go somewhere else for lunch if we wanna. Why? Did you have something in mind?"

He shrugged, hitching his backpack up. "Not really. I was gonna ask if you wanted to sit together again, but you have friends you should probably hang out with, right?"

Celia thought about it for a second but then shook her head. "I dunno, it's not like they really need me there. You can always try to sit with us though! I don't know how awkward you'll feel sitting at a table full of girls, but I'm sure they would let you!"

He thought about it for a minute. "I don't have a problem sitting with girls, but you sure I won't cramp your style?" he said, winking slyly at her.

"Nah, you shouldn't so long as I let them know you're my friend. Maybe look out—just a little bit!—for Tiffany. She's the other skunk I was telling you about yesterday. Sometimes she's a little… Well, you'll see. She means well, though."

They made it to her classroom, his slightly further down the hallway. He stood there for a moment, giving her a grin. "I promise, I'll be on my best behaviour come lunchtime!" With that, he was off to his own class just as the bell rang.

  
———

  
Celia got to her friends' table earlier than Ferris. "Ok, guys," she said to them, "my new friend is gonna be sitting with us today. He's new to the school, so don't give him a hard time, alright?" She noted that Tiffany wasn't there yet.

Ferris was lined up in the lunch line, getting whatever slop they handed out that particular day. Once he had his tray filled, he turned around. Scanning the cafeteria, he spotted Celia's signature striped figure at the table. Walking towards them, he couldn't help but notice she was the only skunk among them. He walked up and placed his tray down next to Celia, smiling at the new people. "Hi! I'm Ferris! Celia said it would be ok if I joined you today. N-nice to meet you!"

Dammit. He had even practiced the line to himself during class, and he still tripped up. Hoping it went unnoticed, he sat down.

Lily, the porcupine girl, was the first at the table to acknowledge the new squirrel. "Hi!" she said back to him. Apparently no one else felt like introducing themselves.

That became irrelevant soon, however, as another female skunk, this one spotted rather than striped, sat down at their table. She set her tray down so loudly that it made almost everyone else jump. She slid into her seat, a peeved expression on her face. "I'm pissed off," she said as if it weren't already obvious before taking a bite of a baby carrot.

Ferris looked at the skunk who had just shown up, practically wearing her emotions on her sleeve, seated across from him. He gave a wary glance Celia's way before giving the new arrival a smile, hoping his presence wouldn't exacerbate it. "Hi! You must be Tiffany. I'm Ferris!"

"What're you doing at our table?" she asked instead of greeting him back.

"Tiffany!" Celia hissed at her.

"Why are you so pissed?" Shae, the hyena, asked the second skunk.

"I got detention," the bitter skunk scowled, crossing her arms over her modest chest.

 _Oh no_. He cursed himself for his terrible timing. _Way to go_ , he thought, _really killed it on that one._

His head lowered a bit, but he tried to take it in stride. He poked a bit at the barely cooked vegetables on his plate, letting the conversation go on around him. Trying to keep in mind what Celia said about Tiffany meaning well, he steeled himself and sat up again, his confident façade rising once more.

"Yeah? What happened? That sounds rough." He didn't want to say it aloud, but he had never once had detention. This made Tiffany an absolute badass in his eyes. 

"Raised my tail at someone in chem lab," Tiffany sulked. "Dumbass bumped into me and damn near made me knock over the beaker I was stirring! So of course I raised my tail and yelled at him, and right then the fuckin' teacher walked back into the classroom. She caught me with my tail up and gave me detention. Fuckin' bullshit…" She dug her fork into the mashed potatoes on her plate.

He nodded, taking a bite of the aforementioned underdone veggies, chewing it appraisingly before deciding that was maybe a bad idea. He put the fork with half a brussel sprout still attached back onto the tray. "Did the other guy get shit? I hear messing around and getting chemicals spilled in a lab is a big no-no in the science community."

"Of course fucking not. When I called out the teacher on that, she said that what he did was an accident, while I raised my tail on purpose. I bet you'd know about being given the benefit of the doubt, wouldn't you, squirrel boy?" Tiffany glared at Ferris.

"Tiffany…" Lily said.

"Tiff, cut it out!" Celia barked at the fellow skunk.

He raised his hands a bit defensively but shook his head. "I mean… she's not wrong. Nobody has ever been worried when I raise my tail, unless they have a house of cards or a toothpick tower nearby." He waved to Celia, surprisingly calm given the situation. "It's ok. It was kind of a stupid question from me anyway."

"Yeah, Ferris, because you don't have two chemical weapons right under your tail!" Celia argued back in defense of the red squirrel.

Ferris had the distinct feeling that Tiffany was not a big fan of the new squirrel encroaching on her space. He turned to Celia and whispered, "Listen, if now isn't a good time, I'm ok finding somewhere else to eat today. I don't want to trouble you folks."

"Oh, aren't you just a saint?" Tiffany hissed sarcastically. "Did it really take this long to realize you don't fit in with us?" Shae was already covering her sensitive nose now just in case.

The last line really hit him. Part of him understood, but the other part of him was quite hurt by the comment. He could feel the façade crumble and fade away, and again he felt like the nervous squirrel he had been when he arrived at this school. Biting back his emotions, he just smiled to Celia. As she looked closely, she could tell that it wasn't the same smile he flashed to her throughout the previous day. It felt fake. "Y-Yeah… Listen, I'm gonna go. Thank you for the invitation, Celia. I really appreciate it."

Ferries waved to the porcupine, the hyena, and Tiffany. "It was, um… nice to meet you all. I'll see you around, I guess." With that, he quickly got up and walked off, leaving his full tray of food behind, a half-eaten brussel sprout still speared on his fork.

Tiffany didn't care. She just rolled her eyes. "Just like your kind to run away from a fight…" she mumbled as she resumed eating.

"Ferris, wait!" Celia called out as he made his way from the table. She pushed her chair back and hurried after him while She and Lily were left to chide Tiffany on her insensitive treatment of the new kid.

Ferris heard her cry his name out, but there was just too much going on in the cafeteria for him. It was too noisy and there were too many people. He didn't stop until he exited into the hallway. Stepping away from the door, he leaned against the wall. It was an intense moment for him, and he could feel tears prickling his eyes. He bit his lip to hold them back, and succeeded before Celia came out of the door. _Thank God_. It would have made the day even worse if she had seen him start to cry over something so stupid. He waved weakly to her. "H-hey."

"Ferris, _please_ don't listen to her," Celia begged with him. "She's just, like, a really toxic person sometimes, and she has this mindset about her that the entire world is out to get her. She just took that out on you… C'mere." She could tell just how hurt he was, so she pulled the squirrel into a long hug to comfort him.

It had been a long time since a girl hugged Ferris. If he weren't feeling so crummy, he would have reacted much differently. But instead, he simply wrapped his arms around her and held her back—maybe a bit tighter than was appropriate. But hey, he was a bit in the dumps. "It's ok. I get it. It was just the wrong time." He chuckled a bit, but it sounded hollow. He pulled back some from the hug, arms still around her. "Your other friends seem really nice though—"

"Oh, _gross_!"

He turned his head, seeing a wolf with his arm around a she-wolf's shoulder. The girl in question was the one that had exclaimed.

"Look at that!" the male barked, "fluffy must be colorblind. That ain't a squirrel, dude!"

"Yeah!" the girl continued, "that's a walking stink bomb!"

They walked past the pair, waving their hands in front of their faces as if wafting away a foul stench as they cackled away.

Ferris's brow furrowed. Mean friends he could handle, but this was something else entirely. He made a move to go after them and give them a piece of his mind.

Celia immediately reached out for the back of Ferris's shirt to keep him out of trouble and, more likely than not, getting his ass handed to him by the much stronger predators.

As it turned out, however, neither of their intervention was needed. Just as the squirrel felt his throat yanked on by the collar of his shirt, two thick, yellow streams went flying past mere feet in front of his face. It had dispersed into a fine yellow mist by the time it made contact with the two wolves, but that didn't make it any less effective. They were doused by the cloud of stinking yellow mist, and a second later burst out howling in pain.

Tiffany had appeared from the entrance to the cafeteria, apparently coerced by her friends at the lunch table to go apologize to Celia and Ferris. When she heard the two canids insulting her fellow skunk, however, she had assumed a handstand and immediately sprayed the two wolves. They were now rolling on the floor scratching at their eyes as the vile musk assaulted their senses.

Ferris stared, mouth agape, at the strange scene. If Celia hadn't grabbed him, that could have been him getting sprayed.

The two wolves were quick to scamper off in the opposite direction of the skunk. Soon after, the hallways were quickly clearing as other students hurried to escape the blast radius. Even from where he was standing, Ferris could feel the fumes burning his nose.

The squirrel looked from Tiffany descending out of her handstand and to Celia. "Uh… should we do something?"

Celia, a step closer to where the spray victims had been, was already choking on the stench. "We get out of here!" she answered the squirrel as she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him in the opposite direction the wolves had fled in. She headed into the cafeteria and yanked the other skunk inside as well.

"Tiffany!!" she derided the spotted skunk as she shut the cafeteria doors once inside to spare the other students the worst of what they'd no doubt already started to smell. Some of the species with stronger senses of smell were already pinching their noses or fleeing. "What did you do that for?!"

"Did you hear them?" she scoffed. "They were making fun of you!"

Ferris could feel his heart racing. He had never been in a fight before, and he wasn't looking to get into one now, but still he felt like he had dodged a bullet on this one.

He took a moment to catch his breath before stepping closer to the two skunks. He definitely wasn't going to get between them, but he had to say something.

"Tiffany, I know you did that for Celia, not me, but thank you. Won't you get in trouble, though?"

"Y-yeah!" Celia concurred with Ferris. "Isn't this your second time spraying this year? You're gonna get degl—"

"Don't say it!" Tiffany yelled at the striped skunk. It was clear she was terrified by the possibility of having her scent glands removed, and the realization that she may soon be subject to the operation as this was her second of just two strikes per year was dawning on her.

"B-but you heard what they said to you, Celia!" the slightly shorter skunk argued back, not caring that she was starting to make a scene in the lunchroom. "I-I had t—"

"Your safety wasn't in danger!" Celia immediately retorted. Through the windows in the cafeteria doors, they could see the school physician—the person on which the duty of dealing with spraying incidents apparently fell—approaching with a gas mask secured to his face.

"Go tell him what happened," Celia encouraged Tiffany. "Who knows? Maybe you won't get in that much trouble."

Ferris felt helpless in the situation. He always knew skunks and the like had a bad reputation, and he had never felt they deserved it, but the gravity of what was happening really brought it all into focus. He was far too naïve, too sheltered. Fidgeting anxiously, he spoke up.

"I could go with you. I'll help you explain what happened. You were sticking up for us and I was about to do something stupid myself."

Tiffany's eyes practically lit up. She realized that if she could convince the administrators that she simply sprayed to prevent any physical harm from coming to the wolves or Ferris, she could have an argument that she did in fact use her musk in defense.

"O-ok!" she said enthusiastically. "I-I'll text Celia if I need your support. Thank you so much!" With that, she walked over to the school physician, briefly explained what had happened, and then walked away with him to make arrangements for her to be taken home and cleaned.

Once Tiffany was gone, Celia turned to the squirrel. "…Are you actually going to do that for her?" she asked. "Nobody except you and me know right now that you were getting ready to confront those wolves. If you actually tell them that you were trying to start a fight, you're going to get in big trouble, too."

Of course, it had crossed Ferris's mind to stay quiet, but that just didn't feel right. Not only was Tiffany trying to help her friend, she also stopped him from potentially making trouble for himself as well. But he knew the repercussions as a first-time offender would be much more lenient.

He smiled reassuringly to Celia. "I'll be ok. A slap on the wrist and maybe detention is a lot better than another strike for her. I'm happy to help. It really is the least I could do."

Changing the subject, he suddenly became a bit more bashful. "Thank you, by the way. For, y'know, the hug. It was really nice of you."

For probably the first time that Ferris had seen, Celia actually blushed a bit and directed her gaze down at the floor. "Tch, you're welcome," she tried to quickly brush it off. "I-it was just me being friendly, y'know? Because Tiff hurt your feelings so much. It was nothing else—definitely nothing like those wolves were suggesting!"

He nodded vigorously at that. "N-no, of course! That would be silly to think! I know you were just being nice… and stuff…"

Ferris trailed off, rubbing his upper arm awkwardly with the other hand. He couldn't help but feel the weight of disappointment in his chest, but he knew realistically that it wouldn't work like that.

But, God, she was pretty when she blushed. He kept his eyes on her a bit longer than he should have, tearing his gaze away as soon as he could. "Do you think Tiffany is going to be ok?"

The skunk sighed. "I don't know… Like I said yesterday, she's a bit too trigger-happy with her spraying. I've secretly been thinking for a while now that getting deglanded would be a good thing for her, but I also know it'd destroy her, since it'd take away the one thing she uses to intimidate others…" She looked down at her feet for a few seconds before back at Ferris. "I'm sorry she ruined your lunch," Celia apologized. "I had no idea she'd be in such a bad mood today."

Ferris waved his hand a bit. "I think she more than made up for it, and like you said, you had no idea. Water under the bridge, really!"

And that was true. He had honestly not been thinking about Tiffany's rude behavior earlier at all with all the excitement that followed. It made it all feel far away.

He briefly considered offering to Celia to bring her friends with them today after school, but something stopped him. Something juvenile and selfish, that wanted it to be just the two of them, for today. And that just reminded him of the world they live in. But he pushed that from his mind.

"Lunch is almost over. Should we check on her?"

Celia raised her eyebrows a bit. "You… think you can tolerate that kind of smell? I mean, she must've sprayed through her clothes. It must still be clinging to her…"

He closed his mouth and shook his head. "No. Yeah, that's a good point. In fact, let's use the side door when the bell goes—"

And just like that, the grating sound cut through the murmur of the remaining kids in the cafeteria. Ferris looked from the door Tiffany walked through, then back to Celia. "Well… class time. I'm sure if they need me to give my testimony, they'll come grab me."

He shouldered his backpack, smiling to Celia. "I'll see you after school? And if you see Tiffany again today, please tell her I said thank you."

"Will do. And they probably won't even come looking for you until tomorrow, when everyone's gotten themselves cleaned." Celia turned around as if she was about to leave, but then stopped."Oh! We still getting food after school?"

Ferris had begun walking away slowly before he smiled and waved to the skunk. "Wouldn't miss it for the world!" he chirped, turning around. Once he was sure his face was out of view, he cracked with a huge grin that drew a strange look from a passing avian student.

  
———

  
Celia waited by the school's front entrance just as Ferris had done for her the previous day. From where she was standing, she could see janitors wearing scent-filtering masks doing the best they could to clean up Tiffany's mess: spraying air freshener, mopping the floor where stray musk droplets could have landed, and spraying even more air freshener. Some students as they left school shot Celia dirty looks, incorrectly assuming she was the culprit behind lunch getting cut short. She didn't pay them much mind.

Ferris had been a bit late leaving, speaking quickly to his teacher about an aspect of the class he had missed before changing schools. He popped out the main door, part of him worried that maybe he had left Celia waiting. But he quickly spotted her, noting a student ahead of him shooting her a glare. He ignored it just as she did, figuring it wasn't worth making a scene over.

"Hey! I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. Looks like they got the hazmat squad out here."

She chuckled. "Yeah, it kinda does. As I said, this wasn't Tiffany's first time spraying in school, so they've learned from their mistakes: that trying to clean up a nauseating smell without the right protective gear often just adds to the mess." Celia mimed puking on the floor and wiping her mouth. Laughing, she pulled her keys out and spun them around her finger just as she'd done yesterday. "Anyway, ready to go?"

He smiled and nodded. "Lead the way!"

He followed alongside her to the vehicle, chatting idly about their classes and other inconsequential things. They reached her red car and he waited for her to unlock the doors before slipping inside and patting his bag down around his feet.

"Well. No dropped books or phones today, no fights. I'd say today has been pretty smooth, all things considered!"

She looked over at the squirrel, a bit unenthused. "My friend still might lose her musk glands, Ferris," Celia said as she unlocked the vehicle. "I don't think that's quite cause for celebration." She got into the driver's seat and started putting on her seatbelt.

He frowned a little at that. He felt very stupid and, not for the first time today, painfully naïve. He didn't really know how to follow that up without sounding grossly idiotic, so he just apologized. "I-I'm sorry. I guess I was just trying to lighten the mood. But she'll probably be ok if I go and say it was to stop a fight, right?"

"Yeah, I hope so," Celia said and started the car. "It's really up to the superintendent, though. He'll slap her with whatever punishment he sees fitting, then if she doesn't do what they say, she can be expelled… I kind of wonder whether she'd actually take expulsion over having her only weapon taken away."

Ferris didn't know how to respond. His lack of world experience weighed heavily on him in this moment. He looked out the window, sighing almost unnoticeably. He wondered if she was starting to get annoyed by him. He decided to not dwell on that. It had been an emotional day. 

"S-so… have you ever done it? Sprayed someone?"

Celia _loudly_ sighed. As she pulled her car in line to leave the parking lot and stopped to wait for traffic to progress, she defeatedly leaned her forehead on the steering wheel with her eyes shut. "You're not… It's not considered very polite to ask a skunk that, Ferris…"

"Sorry." He apologized. Again. Today seemed like a day full of apologies. "I didn't realize…"

This felt weird. He had stepped into a world where, as Tiffany had said earlier, he didn't "fit in". He played idly with a strap on his bag in his lap. "I guess I've been making a bit of a fool of myself today."

"It's fine," she sighed. "You haven't been that bad, really. It's just that asking if she's sprayed before is basically the most stereotypical thing you can ask a skunk. At least you were kind enough to wait until the second day you've known me to ask that. Most don't even get that far before they ask the burning question." Celia laughed a bit as she drove them out of the parking lot.

"To answer your question, though: Yes, I have." She sighed. "Excluding the times I did it to parents when I was just a little kid, I've only actually sprayed people twice in my life."

He nodded, listening to her. He felt bad at first, but he felt the pit of anxiety in his stomach loosen as she laughed. He sunk back into his seat, feeling much more relaxed. "We didn't have skunks where I lived. We had some porcupines, but we all got along since there wasn't a lot of people. Everyone's family knew everyone else's. So I'm sure this won't be the last time I put my foot in my mouth." He looked over at her, watching her drive. "I think you'd have a lot of friends if people didn't treat you like a ticking time bomb. Because by the sound of it, you aren't."

"Exactly!" she said emphatically. "People always seem afraid I'll spray them or something, but I don't wanna do anything like that! Hell, I haven't even sprayed since ninth grade—that was the PE coach thing I was telling you about earlier."

She brushed a strand of hair out of her face so it wouldn't distract her from driving. "I feel like not enough people know this, but as you saw at lunch, we're just as disgusted by the smell as anybody else."

He nodded, listening to her. "It doesn't make sense to me. Like you said, I think people just don't know enough."

He smiled as he looked at her, not really realizing he was starting to stare. "But, regardless, I got your back. And you have a good group of friends, even Tiffany. I'm happy you have them!"

"Honestly, sometimes I think skunks like Tiffany give the rest of us a bad name… but perhaps now isn't the right time to discuss that." She pulled onto the highway. "Will you bring up the directions to the burger place on your phone?"

He pulled out his phone, looking up the restaurant and pulling it up on the map app. "Uhm… it says three exits down from here!"

Remembering where they were heading, he suddenly felt a rush of excitement. He was so busy with moving and catching up with school work that he hadn't been able to go out and do anything fun for weeks. "What do you think you'll get?" he asked, sounding more like a kid on Christmas than an 18-year-old heading to a burger joint.

"Well you said you wanted to buy me a burger, right? I figured I'd just go with a hamburger. What about you?" She craned her neck to look at his phone screen and make sure she was going the right way.

He tilted the screen to show her. Just thinking about food made his stomach growl loudly. He realized then that he had never actually eaten lunch! "God, I don't know! But all I know is I'm gonna get a lot of it. I'm starving! I think this exit is the one," he said, pointing down the road.

She turned the steering wheel and their car gently pulled off onto the exit. A couple minutes later and they were parking just outside the diner.

Ferris could barely contain his excitement. Driving for something like this back home would have taken a much longer time. He stepped out, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. He grinned widely at Celia as she stepped out of the car.

Leading her into the restaurant, he inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of the whole day's cooking. "Oh, God," he said, wiping his mouth. "I just can't wait. Wanna sit there?" he asked, pointing to an L-shaped booth in the corner. It seemed fairly private, all things considered, and looked to seat two or three people comfortably.

"Fine by me," she chortled at his unbridled excitement. "Damn, you must really like food, huh? No wonder you hate our school: they cook all the flavor out of theirs."

She slid into the booth and laid her tail out beside her in the seat. Sitting down with such a big tail was always something of a pain.

He gathered up his own tail and placed it down beside hers. It brushed gently against hers, but since his was mostly bushy fur, he had no clue. "Yeah, food is one of my favorites. And since my mom is working again, my dad and I take turns cooking. But my dad is horrible. He could burn a hard-boiled egg. Between that and the cafeteria, this is gonna be like a five-star restaurant!"

A casually dressed ibex man in a waist-apron and his sleeves rolled up came to the booth, handing each of them a menu. "Any drinks?" he asked curtly. It didn't come off as rude, though. He probably had about ten orders in his head at any one moment.

"Ah, just a water for me!" Ferris chirped.

The ibex turned to Celia, looking expectantly. "Iced tea for me, please," Celia requested as she redirected her attention to the menu.

"I'll have those right out for you and take your orders," the waiter said politely before walking away.

"So, how did your dad run a grocery store but not even know a single thing about food preparation?" Celia casually asked.

The squirrel laughed. "Mom and I ask him that every day he cooks! I guess you don't need to know much about cooking to sell food!"

Promptly, the ibex returned with their drinks, a clear glass of water for him and a brown-colored iced tea for her. He went off again without a word, attending to a table crammed with kids and one overwhelmed mother.

"He's a good guy, but he kind of has the bumbling sitcom dad thing going on. But he's good at his job, I'm told."

"Well, at least he's got that going for him," the skunk chuckled. The two quietly looked over their menus for a short while before Celia's mind wandered elsewhere. "Hey, if I hadn't grabbed your shirt and Tiffany hadn't sprayed those wolves, what would you have done to them?"

The question surprised him. He looked up from the menu, trying to remember how he felt when it happened. All he remembered was feeling the powerful urge to walk up and give them a piece of his mind.

"Jeez. I dunno. I hadn't really thought that far ahead. I didn't want to fight them or anything. I just wanted them to apologize."

"Well, you didn't have to do that just for my honor or something—or yours, for that matter. People are always gonna say dumb shit when they see us hanging out, so it's best just to ignore them. I mean there really is nothing between us, right?" She tried to ask that question as if she were expecting an easy "Right!" back, but she really was interested in seeing if he said otherwise.

… _There really is nothing between us, right?_

He opened his mouth to quickly agree with her, but something stopped him. Was there something between them? He supposed not. It had only been two days. They barely knew each other. Was he just growing an attachment because she was nice to him? Or—God—was he one of those guys?

"Uh… right. Yeah. Of course," he said, forcing an insincere smile.

"Hah, cool," she chuckled, looking over her shoulder and immediately shutting up when she saw that their waiter was approaching them.

"What'll it be for you guys?" he asked the skunk and squirrel.

"Kahuna burger for me, please," Celia said, hurriedly handing the menu back with a polite smile.

Ferris was snapped out of it by the returning waiter. When the man turned to the squirrel, he piped up. "A veggie burger, please! And extra fries!"

The ibex didn't even write the order down. He headed to the kitchen before getting pulled aside by an elderly rabbit couple.

Ferris folded his hands on the table to keep from tapping them excitedly. "Are there many skunks at our school? I think I've only seen you and Tiffany."

"There's a skunk boy a grade or two below us who I see heading outside all the time to play soccer, but I think that's about it." She took a sip of her tea. "Is there something you should tell me about you and skunks, or are you really just that starved for conversation topics?" she teased him.

He shook his head. "N-not particularly. I was just curious, y'know?" Nervously, his tail flicked and brushed up against Celia's. And again, he seemed fully oblivious of this. 

Nearby, a scoff could be heard. Ferris turned to see what was happening, and just caught the old male rabbit staring at them before turning back to his meal. Ferris felt a bit weird about that but brushed it off.

"Learning more about skunks wouldn't be so bad though. I think more people should."

Celia followed Ferris's line of sight. When she saw nothing but an old man looking away from them, she figured he had just jumped a bit when he heard the rabbit cough or something. She looked back at the squirrel.

"Well, what do you wanna know about skunks? Probably better if you ask someone like me the potentially uncomfortable questions, rather than someone like Tiffany, who is a little more likely to… let's say, get offended."

She laughed some and took a sip of her drink. "If there really is something you wanna know, go ahead and ask away. But this is your one chance to ask me all the weird stuff you want so we can just get it outta the way."

He glanced conspiratorially around him, making sure nobody was close enough to hear. He then leaned in a little bit and whispered, "I-Is it true that it comes out of… um… your _butt_?"

She looked at him like he was crazy. "Uh, yeah. Are you messing with me? Of course it does."

He backed off a little, hands raised. "Well, they don't tell us this stuff! I only heard it from my friends at home. And as nice as they are, they aren't, uh, the most worldly kinda people."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, it comes out of our butts. Should I, like, go into more detail, or is that a bad idea when we're about to eat soon?"

Ferris let out a chuckle. "Probably best to drop that one there!"

As if on cue, the ibex returned, carrying two plates laden with burgers. He set them down in front of the two. "Need anything else?" he asked tersely.

"Nothing for me," Ferris said. Feeling eyes on him again, he turned his head to look. He locked eyes again with the rabbit, who whispered something to his wife. She placed a hand on his and said something back, and the old rabbit turned away again. He didn't feel good about it.

"Yeah, I'm good too," Celia reassured their waiter. When she caught Ferris again staring at the elderly couple, though, she just had to ask…

"Ok, what are you looking at them for?" Celia whispered as she picked up her almost grotesquely large burger. "They're just a couple old people, right?"

He leaned closer again. "Ok, that old guy keeps staring at us. That lady keeps trying to get his attention and get him to turn away, but he just keeps looking back."

Again, with impeccable timing, the old, graying rabbit looks. This time, he saw both of the students staring back at him. He quickly turned again, burying himself in his meal.

"See? It's weird."

Celia turned away at the exact same time as the rabbit did, feeling awkward staring at a total stranger. "Do you think he has something against skunks? Or squirrels for that matter?" she whispered. "Or does he think that you and I are…?"

"Probably not squirrels…" he mused. "Maybe skunks. And—" he realized her implication and leaned back a little from Celia.

"I-I don't think it's that! Besides, it's not like we even look like a…" He decided to not finish that thought.

"It's probably nothing, but it just feels weird, y'know?"

"I say just ignore him," Celia urged the squirrel. "I mean, we're not a couple, so who cares what he thinks we may or may not be." She tried one of her fries.

He nodded. Even if he was being a bigot, nothing was probably going to happen. He picked up his burger, suddenly aware again of his ravenous hunger once again. He took a huge bite out of it, trying not to moan out in bliss as he did. He chewed it thoroughly before swallowing. "Oh, yes. This is exactly what I needed!"

Beside Celia's, his huge tail twitched happily. It seemed he didn't have very much control over it when he got excited.

She laughed at his exaggerated delight. "You really do get yourself excited about food, don'tcha?" She scooted away from the squirrel's tail just so that neither he nor the elderly rabbit got the wrong idea about the two.

He nodded vigorously. "I never ate lunch, so I've been starving all day! And this burger is delicious." He took another bite, completely lost in it. After a few more he finally took a drink of water. "How's yours?"

"It's pretty good! I guess I must've eaten more lunch than you before Tiffany, y'know, unexpectedly ended it. I'm sorry, if I'd known you were so hungry, I would've just bought you something from the school vending machine!"

As she felt some of the burger juice running down her chin, she grabbed a napkin off the table and wiped her mouth. She hoped the squirrel wouldn't think of her as any less ladylike for it.

If anybody knew about dripping burger juice, it was Ferris. Even if he had noticed, he certainly wouldn't mention it. He might have even thought it was cute.

He waved his arm. "S'okay! I didn't say anything, and now I'm glad I didn't. These burgers are huge!"

Speaking of which, he was nearly done with it, having tucked it away in only five or six bites. He licked his lips and grabbed a fry, leaning back.

"So… what's your favourite class?"

She chuckled and shook her head, swallowing her bite of burger. "You poor squirrel…" she giggled. "You really are running low on the question. I know that because you asked me something that every college counselor and distant relative has been asking me for the last four years!"

Still laughing, she set her burger down half-finished on her plate. She was starting to think she may actually be unable to finish the whole sandwich. "But also, I understand that you're waiting to ask those really juicy, disgusting questions for when you're no longer eating, so I guess I can't blame you."

He shrugged, chewing his fry. "Sure, I guess there's plenty of more interesting things I could ask you, but you never know. Seriously, I don't know a thing about you. You could be super passionate about one of your classes. I have no clue. It's been an interesting two days, but it really has only been two days."

"Oh come on, you know things about me!" She playfully punched his shoulder. "Well, I guess it'd have to be art. What about you?"

Ferris winced and laughed as Celia struck him, rubbing his upper arm and thinking. "Probably English. I like writing essays and stuff. My old friends always thought I was crazy, though."

Suddenly, with a creak of the vinyl booth seat, the nearby rabbit stood up. "Harold!" the elderly woman exclaimed, but she was ignored as the old man made his way over to the student's booth.

Ferris nudged her elbow and looked over at him approaching. "Hey. Heads up."

He came to a stop at the table. The fur on his face was almost fully gray at this point. His big ears were pushed down by a grubby baseball cap. He glared at the two kids. "Disgusting," was all he said.

Ferris was visibly surprised. Not even knowing what to say, he looked to Celia and then back to the man. "Um, what?"

The skunk, used to having to apologize simply for existing, immediately said, "I'm sorry, sir." Although most skunks in such a confrontation might be tempted to tense their tails in preparation for such a fight, through years of restraint she'd trained her tail to go completely limp in situations like this.

She directed her gaze down at the table, and when she did so realized that he may not hate her just for being a skunk. "Oh, we're not a couple though!" She motioned back and forth between herself and Ferris. "We're just friends."

The old rabbit sneered. Despite his mistake, he made no attempt to acknowledge it. Maybe he really did hate skunks as well.

"We're trying to have a nice meal, my wife and I, and then a couple of brats come in, being all noisy, and I have to eat while you two flirt! Don't you have a bit of respect?"

"Harold!" the woman exclaimed again, despite not getting up from her seat. 

The restaurant had gotten quiet. The other patrons were looking at the scene. The poor mother tried to hush her children and keep them eating. She knew it was in fact her table that was the most noisy in the restaurant, not the teens'.

Ferris started to stand up. "Hey, man, we're not doing anything wro—"

Before he could finish, a large hand rested on his shoulder. The ibex from earlier gently pushed down on him, making him sit again.

"Your check, sir," the ibex said, holding a receipt out to the rabbit.

"Check? We haven't even finished eating yet!" the rabbit spat.

Despite everything she had been trying to do to reassure everyone that she wouldn't spray, this shouting match had gone on too long for her taste. When her squirrel friend stood up and she thought he may try to get himself into a fight as he almost did at lunch, she slowly let her tail raise.

"Sir, please just let us eat…" Celia said with her new intimidation factor. She knew she had no intention at all of ever spraying—especially in a semi-active restaurant with children around—but she hoped this would be enough to make the old man back off.

Though the threat of spraying didn't faze the waiter, it certainly scared the rabbit. Even some other patrons inched away from the scene.

Ferris had noticed her raise her tail and became a bit nervous. But he trusted her, so he said nothing.

The rabbit stammered a bit, brow furrowed, before he simply stomped off, collecting his jacket from the back of his chair. His wife put money down on the table and both quickly left, saying nothing.

There was a long moment of silence before Ferris noticed he was holding his breath. He exhaled heavily, slumping back in the booth. "Are you ok?" he asked Celia.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, her tail now limp again. "Don't worry, I only raised my tail to scare him. I never, ever would have sprayed." She made sure she spoke loud enough that other guests could hear her if they wanted.

Celia sighed and reclined back in her seat just as Ferris did, except she looked more ashamed than relieved. As she looked around the restaurant, she saw other patrons and even some servers almost staring at her wide-eyed, all no doubt asking themselves in their heads, "Well, will she?"

She hated that with a simple raising of her tail she could strike such fear into everyone around her. All she wanted to do was make the old rabbit leave her and Ferris alone, but now everybody else in the building seemed to be waiting with eager dread for her to do that thing that they all knew only skunks could do.

Ferris felt the weird energy in the restaurant now. He hated it. They hadn't done anything wrong. All Celia had done was stick up for herself. He felt powerless.

The ibex had stayed near the two, obviously concerned that something might happen, not that his stoic face gave that away.

"M-maybe we oughta go," Ferris said.

Celia sighed but nodded her head in agreement. She was just about full anyway.

She turned to their waiter. "Could we get the check, please?"

The ibex nodded and returned with the check, walking off to attend to other patrons. Ferris dug out his wallet and pulled a few bills out, placing them on the table. He got up and picked up his bag. After waiting for her to gather herself up, he led her out of the restaurant.

"Come back again," said the ibex. How genuine that was, though, was anyone's guess. They exited through the swinging door to the parking lot.

Ferris felt strange. Uneasy. He looked back at the skunk. He couldn't imagine how it felt for her.

What's worse was that he didn't think anything he could say would help. They walked to the car in silence. Finally, he spoke up.

"Celia… I'm really sorry. Are you ok?"

She climbed into her seat and again rested her forehead on the steering wheel, just as she'd done when Ferris asked her if she'd ever sprayed anyone.

"That was so humiliating…" Celia sighed, her eyes shut in complete shame. "Why… Why did that asshole have to come give us shit?"

He watched her lean over the steering wheel. He could feel his heart drop as he heard the pain in her voice. Not really knowing what else to do, he gently placed a hand on hers. He really meant it only as a sign of reassurance.

"He was just an asshole. You didn't deserve that. Just a sad old man full of hate. There's too many people like that. I'm sorry."

"Yeah…" She wiped her nose some. She hadn't officially started crying, but her nose was already acting like she was. "Should I not have raised my tail at him?" she asked. "I only did it because you started standing up, and I didn't want you to risk doing something stupid to some old man… even if he did kinda deserve it for thinking we're a couple." She lifted her head up and looked at the red squirrel.

He frowned a little. "I was mad, but I wasn't gonna fight him. I don't get into fights. They're stupid. But I didn't want to just sit there and let him badmouth you. You're my friend."

He sighed. "I don't know whether you should have or not. I knew you weren't about to spray him. I bet that was the reason he left as quick as he did."

"Yeah… I just feel bad for probably terrifying that mom and her kids, too… Whatever, maybe we should just start heading home." She started up her car and backed out of their parking space. "God, I'm so dumb… I shouldn't have even done anything."

Ferris shrugged. "I don't think so. I think you were in the right, personally. You didn't do anything wrong."

He couldn't think of anything more than platitudes at that point. The drive was silent for a little bit, and just a little tense. "Does that kind of thing happen often to you?"

"No, I can maybe say I've had an interaction almost that tense only once ever before… So maybe he really was pissed at us because he thought we were a couple?"

Celia sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry you've had to deal with so much dumb, skunk-related shit just today. I promise my species isn't usually like this."

He had to laugh a little bit at that. It felt good to. Liberating. "That's totally fine! It's been an interesting day to say the least!"

He thought back to the old man thinking they were a couple. He knew it wouldn't happen. He was sure no skunk wanted even more attention from being in an interspecies relationship. Nothing about it was illegal, necessarily, but since cross-breeding was rare and old prejudices still persisted, most didn't even consider getting into one.

"Y-yeah. It's weird that he thought that. Like, how is that the first thing that comes into your head? He must have been waiting for something like that to happen."

"Yeah, that seriously must've been it," Celia laughed. "He's old and never seen an interspecies couple before, but he just really wants to yell at at least one before he dies!"

He snorted at that, feeling the tension dissipate from him. "'Oh, I hope I see an interspecies couple today! I've been waiting my whole life for this!'"

She laughed uproariously with Ferris. "'This'll really show them not to be unnatural!'" She shook her head. "What a bitter, old asshole!"

He nodded. "Totally. Just a sad old man. No use getting worked up over him."

He watched her laughing. It warmed his heart to see her cackling along with him after such an intense scene. Part of him knew if he wasn't there with her, it likely wouldn't have happened. But he was thankful that she didn't seem bothered by that.

"That food was amazing, at least. I'm really happy I got to try it. Thank you for coming with me. Old fart aside, it was really fun."

"Yeah,"—she looked away from the road for a second to look at Ferris—"it really was." Celia quickly turned her head back when she felt her cheeks getting hot.

She needed to change the conversation topic before they got stuck in this place where they were just being sweet to one another. "Oh!" she finally exclaimed. "If you still have any weird or gross skunk questions, I can still answer them for you."

He tapped his chin in a joking matter. He didn't really know what to ask, honestly. "Umm… Does the spray ever go off by accident?"

"No, not unless, like, something actually goes up the butt," she chuckled. "Not saying you ever would, but if you find yourself ever having sex with a skunk, be extra careful and make sure you go in the right hole. Probably, like, half my skunk friends—who go to a different school, by the way—have at least one story where their overzealous boyfriend goes in the wrong hole, and you can probably guess what happens next." She smirked.

He felt his cheeks heat up at that, shifting in his seat. "Hehe, noted! I'll be sure to keep a weather eye on which hole I go into!"

The two kept riding on in quiet for a while, Celia's music playing through the car's speaker system, before she asked as they pulled off the highway, "So, why'd you never learn to drive? Isn't that pretty important to know when you live in a rural small town?"

He was suddenly very embarrassed. But given that she had been so open with him, he felt she should deserve the same treatment.

"I, uh… I started to learn how to drive," he started. "About two weeks into it, I decided I should go to the store. I grabbed the keys and took my mom's car. It was dark out, and where I lived, there were very few street lights. And of course, I didn't say where I was going."

He gave a little grimace. "I might've, uh, swerved to avoid a deer and ended up in a ditch and wrecked her car. They said I wasn't allowed to drive a car again until I turned 18. I did turn 18 just a few months ago, but then we were moving and everything and it just didn't come up. I'm hoping to get started soon."

Celia laughed as he told the story. "Oh God… That's terrible but also so funny. Sounds like you'd be a good driver, though, just a panicky one. Maybe one of these days I can give you driving lessons if your parents are still too busy."

He perked up at that. "Oh, thank God. I'd love that. I think my parents are terrified of getting in a car with me behind the wheel. It's been a few years though."

He pictured it briefly, Celia sitting in the passenger seat while he drove. He was looking forward to actually making progress on it so much that he barely even noticed them pulling into his driveway. His mother's black car was in the driveway.

"Thanks for the ride! Maybe soon I'll be the one dropping you off," he said, opening the door and grabbing his bag.

She smirked. "Or maybe you'll be the one driving me into a ditch. Either way, I look forward to it! See you around, Squirrelly."

He waved her off and made his way through the front door. He dropped his backpack down on the floor and stretched out, standing on his tiptoes with his arms up high. His tail extended out as he groaned a little. It had been a long, emotional day for him. Part of him was very glad it was all over.

"Hey, honey!" Ferris's mom said as he came home. She walked up to her son and gave him a big hug. As she pulled away, however, she wrinkled her nose a bit and flashed an angry expression at him. "Young man, have you been smoking pot?!"

His eyes widened. He hadn't smoked pot in a long time. He grabbed his shirt and sniffed it, realizing the smell still stuck to him.

"No! Something happened at school. A skunk sprayed someone, and I was nearby." This was most certainly not a lie, just a little omission of a few facts.

She gasped and pulled back. "Oh no… Are you ok?! That must've been so awful for you! Is your poor nose fine? I hope they caught that damn skunk. Hurry, take your shirt off so I can throw it in the wash!"

He slipped his shirt over his head, balling it up in his hands. He shivered a bit as the days had gotten a bit more chilly recently.

"Yeah, the girl who did it might be in trouble, but I hope not. She was trying to stop a fight… I think. But I think if she hadn't done that, a kid would have ended up getting himself hurt." No reason to tell her the kid in question was himself, of course.

She sighed and shook her head as she took the balled-up shirt from him. "Damn dirty skunks…" she muttered. "You know, I had to defend one in court once for undue spraying, and he got so heated that he damn near sprayed me in one of our meetings!"

She headed towards the laundry room. "Stay away from those things if you can help it," she called over her shoulder, her tail swaying a bit as she walked.

He stood in the hallway outside of the laundry room. What she said really bothered him. Some random asshole in a restaurant or a rude student was one thing, but it was his own mother saying that to him.

"Those 'things' are people, mom," he said, a bit quietly. He wasn't even sure if she heard him. 

"What was that hun?" she called from inside the room. "You're mumbling again; I can't hear you."

It upset him deeply to hear her go from saying something like that to calling him 'hun'. All he could think of was how sad Celia looked in the restaurant after what happened. How she had looked at him after the wolves mocked them… He balled up his fist and sighed.

"They're people, mom. Don't call them 'things'. Nobody calls us 'things'."

She felt like she needed to defend herself against her own son. "Well, I mean, obviously I don't think of them as 'things'. I know that they're people, too. But they're also people with a disgusting little secret weapon that they seem almost eager to inflict upon the rest of us!"

She started treating the shirt with some detergents she had sitting around. "Take that girl who sprayed in school today, for example. Did you happen to hear how many other times she'd sprayed people before? I'd bet you this wasn't her first time."

He grit his teeth hearing her backpedal and justify herself. "Doesn't matter how many times she did it before. I don't know what happened any time before, but I was there today. If she hadn't done it, people could have ended up hurt. I think she did the right thing, even though she might get in trouble."

He stood near the door, leaning on it with his arms crossed. "They get treated like ticking time bombs. You don't think that might make them a little resentful?"

He shook his head. "Whatever. I'll see you at dinner," he said, turning around and stomping up to his room. He closed the door a bit harder than he should have and fell down onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"What is up with that boy…" As she was getting ready to throw the shirt into the washing machine and set it on the longest possible cycle, she paused as she noticed something. There was some of Ferris's easily identifiable red fur on the fabric, but there was something else, too.

She looked closer. There were some strands of black fur also clinging to the cloth, as well as a couple white strands.

  
———

  
After parking in her driveway and going inside, instead of sitting down at her kitchen to do homework as she usually did, Celia went straight to the living room to flop on the couch, defeated and embarrassed after today.

As the skunk flopped down on the couch, her mother was walking in from one of the adjoining hallways. She clutched a lint roller in her paw, running it over the front of her scrubs. "Doesn't matter what I wear," she said to her daughter without looking up, "black or white fur will always show up. Damn."

Celia laughed a bit, completely familiar with the struggle of her fur always coming loose and interfering with her outfit.

She looked over at her daughter on the couch, smiling sweetly. "Hey, sweetheart. How was your day? Something exciting happen? You're home rather late."

"Yeah. Dad told you about that friend I made yesterday, right? The squirrel boy?"

She nodded as she continued rolling. "Mhm. Said you were askin' how to tell if someone has a crush on you, I heard!"

"Well, he wanted to buy me a meal to apologize for cracking my phone. We went there, and… Yeah, I guess you could say something exciting happened there." She covered her face with her shirt in shame, and that's when she realized she smelled slightly of skunk musk. Must've been inside Tiff's blast radius, she thought to herself.

She sat down next to her daughter on the couch. She inhaled through her nose and turned to the girl hiding her face. "That excitement didn't happen to be you spraying someone, was it?" she said, mostly joking. She knew her daughter took that very seriously, but part of her was worried Celia might have been pushed to a breaking point. It happened with a lot of skunks.

"No, you're smelling Tiffany," she sighed. "She sprayed at lunch today, but that's a different story." Her mother had met Tiffany before, and she knew what a loose cannon that girl was.

Celia sat up finally. "This crotchety old man came up and started berating us for being disgusting or something. The dumbass thought Ferris and I were on a date! So we tried asking him to leave us alone, but when he didn't, I… raised my tail. I didn't spray! I would never spray in a restaurant. And so that made him back off, but it also made everyone else stare at me… I hated that feeling, Mom… They were looking at me like a freak." She wiped her eye. "It was terrible. I felt disgusting…"

After letting her get the story out, she wrapped her arms around her daughter, pulling the skunk's head onto her shoulder. "Oh, sweetie… I'm so sorry. I understand, though. Sometimes you need to get someone to back off. But the important thing is you didn't do _it_."

She pulled back from the hug a little, keeping Celia's head on her shoulder and lightly running her fingers through her hair. "Lots of people, usually older ones, have a lot of old opinions on people like us. But we're strong. And no matter what anyone thinks of you, anyone who knows you knows you're a smart, kind person. You're still young, but I know you can overcome that and be the best person you can be. I love you."

She hugged her once again, noticing a bit of fur on her shoulder. "Lemme get that for you!" she said cheerily, rolling away at it and noticing the red fur it picked up. Must be the squirrel boy, she thought.

She picked the red strand off. "So… tell me about this boy. Doesn't seem like he's one of the kinds to avoid you."

She smiled and wiped her nose as she pulled out of the hug. "Oh, he's nice. He just transferred to our school earlier this month because he had to move when his mom got a new job."

She realized that she should probably dismiss her concern that he may have a crush on her. "Oh, and don't worry about what I was asking Dad yesterday about crushes. I doubt that he's actually interested in me… especially after today. He's just a nice boy from a small town, so I guess I wasn't used to how sweet he was being." She smiled at her mom. The two of them really did look quite similar, especially when they both had their hair down as they did now.

Her mother smiled back, rubbing her back sweetly. She was glad she had made a friend with someone from a "safe" species, not that her other friends were anything but sweethearts (even Tiffany, despite her hair-trigger).

She pushed a few strands of hair from her daughter's face and cupped her cheek. "I gotta get to the hospital, love. Get your homework done and I'm sure your dad will bring something home to eat. I'll text him and remind him. Don't want a repeat of last week, hm?"

She got up and kissed Celia on the top of the head. "You've grown up into a fine woman. I'm so proud of you. I'll see you tomorrow!" And with that, she stepped towards the foyer before turning back and looking at Celia.

"Be careful of those small town folks. He might seem nice, but sometimes people from those areas can have strong opinions about us. I trust you can tell, though. Oh, and maybe don't tell your father he took you out for food just yet. I'll keep that between you and me." She gave Celia a conspiratorial wink before stepping out to slip her shoes on. Soon, she shouted a farewell as she left the house, locking the door behind her and leaving Celia alone with the silence of the house.


	3. Friday, October 2

The next morning, as Celia was putting on a long-sleeve sweater in preparation for the colder fall day, she thought about how Ferris must feel having to walk to school today. She decided to shoot him a text.

Celia: Hey squirrel boy, want a ride to school? It’s cold, it’d suck to have to walk to school in this weather

Ferris groaned as he rolled over in his bed. The dinner with his family last night had been quiet and awkward, and he had gone to bed feeling shitty. His phone dinged and he looked at it. His sleepy eyes shot open. He fired off a quick text back before dashing out of his bed to shower.

Ferris: omg i overslept! I’ll b ready soon! thank u!!

Celia: Lol what would you do without me? I’ll be there in 10

Ferris: 👍

He got ready in record time, slipping on his shoes just as he heard the tires pulling up his driveway. He slung on his backpack and dashed out, locking the house door behind him. He pattered up to the red car and hopped inside.

"Mornin'!" he chirped, bundled in a light jacket.

"Morning," she replied, taking a sip of her coffee before placing it back down in the cupholder. "I take it you slept pretty well last night?"

He shook his head. "Nope! Like crap. But I'm usually energetic in the morning anyways." 

He clicked his seatbelt in, settling back. "How about you?"

"I slept fine… Why'd you sleep like crap? Also, fuck you and your damn squirrelly energy." She laughed as she backed out of the driveway. "Skunks are supposed to be nocturnal, so I've gotta chug coffee in the morning just to stay awake."

He frowned a little bit, but figured there was no harm in talking about what had made his sleep so turbulent. "Kinda got pissed at my mom, and the atmosphere was really weird at my place. My dad didn't notice it at all, but things were really quiet."

He had heard about the nocturnal species and their dependence on caffeine in the morning. "Must be rough. I always feel like I need one by 2 PM, though. Makes the last few classes really drag."

"Hey, maybe you and I can meet after lunch to grab coffee," she offered.

"Sure, sounds like a good plan. I'll definitely need it by then."

"Wait, your mom? What were you pissed at her for?" She kept on driving the slightly altered route to school, trying to make her tired brain focus on both the conversation and driving safely, though the latter was second nature for her by now.

He sighed, wondering how much he should reveal. "I, uh, told her about what happened with Tiffany yesterday. She said some pretty ignorant things and I kinda got mad at her. I don't think she realized how crappy she was being." He shrugged. "Small town people can be like that sometimes."

It was Celia's turn to sigh. "Yeah… I've always kinda had a feeling people say stuff like that about us behind closed doors. Just don't tell Tiffany what your mom said and you should be fine… Oh, speaking of her, we'll probably be called into the office today to be asked about what happened yesterday."

He nodded at that. "I figured. I've decided I'm just gonna be honest about it. I really think things would have been worse if she hadn't saved my ass. It was stupid of me to get all worked up over some dick. I feel kind of foolish about it."

"Wait… You're going to be honest? I thought the honest truth was that you were gonna go talk to those wolves, not fight them."

He rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. I was pissed off, I'm sure I would have said something that would have gotten my ass beat."

"…Ok," Celia said. In reality, she wasn't sure that Ferris's current testimony would be enough to get Tiffany out of trouble.

But Celia didn't want Tiffany to get out of trouble. She'd been poisoning skunks' reputation for too long, and it was time she saw the consequences of that. At least, that's what Celia was thinking.

Ferris didn't add much more to that. The whole situation was new to him. He didn't really know what to think at all. When they pulled into the school parking lot, he opened the door and stepped out. "I'll see you at lunch?"

"Unless we get called out of class earlier than that," she said. "I have no idea when they plan on having us come talk about Tiffany." She headed toward the main entrance of the school.

"Harper, Rutherford," both students' last names were called shortly after they entered the building. As they turned to look, they could see the school superintendent, a bull with particular imposing horns, waiting for them with his arm crossed. "I need to see you both in my office."

Not even waiting for them to reply, he turned around and started walking, expecting them to follow. Celia flashed a nervous expression at Ferris before shrugging and following the bull.

He shrugged and followed her, feeling a pit of anxiety in his stomach. They followed to the office and stepped inside. Ferris closed the door behind him.

The office was fairly spartan, not much in the way of decoration. The middle of the room was dominated by a large desk, one cushioned seat on the superintendent's end, and two plastic chairs like those in the cafeteria on the opposite side. Ferris slipped into one of them, pushing his tail aside.

As Celia sat down too, the bull started speaking. His voice was ridiculously deep. "I understand you two witnessed one of your skunk peers spray two people with her musk yesterday, correct?" he said.

Celia nodded, "Yes, sir."

"Would you please explain to me why you believe this student did that?"

Celia was quiet and decided to let Ferris take this one and answer as he saw fit.

He took a moment to think of how to phrase it. "I think she did it for a good reason. Celia was giving me a hug in the hallway, and two wolf students started insulting us. I was about to go over and get mad at them for that. I wasn't planning on doing anything bad, but I was really angry. I believe she did it to protect us and take attention away from us."

He exhaled, feeling his heart beat a mile a minute. "Please don't be too angry with her. She was just trying to help, in her own way. Since I was involved, I was the reason it even happened, I think I should at least take some of the punishment. She didn't do it for no reason."

He was writing all this down as he heard it. When Ferris was done, he said, "Wait… Why were you and Celia hugging exactly?"

"He was feeling upset and I wanted to comfort him," the skunk answered. "It was nothing romantic, I promise."

"Ah…" he sighed, never seeming enthused. After writing for a couple seconds again, he looked up at the squirrel. "You say you weren't planning on 'doing anything bad'. If that's the case, then what exactly was she protecting you all from by spraying the other two students?"

Ferris got a little upset at that. While it's true that there was no real proof that anything was going to happen, this guy wasn't there, hearing the insults getting flung. He sunk into his chair a bit. "She was trying to stop a potential fight. Intent is important in this stuff, right? These wolves were mocking us for no reason other than their own amusement. And that makes me angry. I'd figure it would make you angry too, unless this is a school that encourages that kind of behavior?" He could feel himself getting snippy, but he honestly didn't care. He wasn't about to let Tiffany get thrown under the bus for no reason.

"Interspecies romance is not a value that is pushed in this school, boy," the bull said, showing an emotion for the first time: anger. "Now I'll remind you to keep your tone civil before you and I have a problem."

The superintendent looked at Celia. "Now, what kinds of insults were being flung?"

"Um…" she said as she thought. "First they said, I think, that Ferris must have poor vision, because he was hugging a skunk, not a squirrel."

He sulked a bit at being rebuked, but followed up, "They called her a walking stink bomb, too."

"Hm… Species-based insults aren't tolerated here… But was that really going to initiate a fight between you and them?"

He shrugged at that. "Maybe. Possibly. It didn't get that far before she sprayed, but anything was possible."

"Alright, I think I've heard enough," the man said. "Spraying just because there's a possibility of violence is not acceptable. There must be a genuine, imminent threat present." He looked to Celia, "If you see Tiffany this morning, will you send her to my office? Tell her we need to talk about deglanding procedures."

Ferris felt anger at that, but said nothing. He felt that nothing he said, no pleas nor begging, would make an impact. He felt his fist tighten against his leg, but he kept it to himself. He looked at Celia, obviously in anguish. He wondered if there was anything he could do.

Despite the fact that this was what she kind of wanted, Celia felt immense guilt manifest in her stomach when he said the dreaded word "deglanding".

She was about to force herself to stand up when she realized she couldn't bring herself to do it. She blurted out, "Ferris, uh, d-don't you wanna add something?" She nudged the squirrel with her foot so the bull wouldn't be able to see. "Weren't you gonna get a little more violent with those wolves?"

His eyes widened. As of yet, he hadn't outright lied about anything. He really didn't like to lie. But if it was what Celia wanted for her friend, he owed it to her.

"I, uh… I didn't want to say this. It's embarrassing to admit. I was going to walk up and deck the guy that said that. Tiffany is the only reason I didn't hit him."

He didn't mention Celia grabbing his shirt or calling his name, in case that would cast doubt on his testimony. He rubbed his hands together nervously beneath the desk.

The superintendent stopped in the middle of writing something. He looked Ferris directly in the eye. "Come again?" he said. "You were going to get yourself into a fight with Jonathan and Erika—two _wolves_? And just to confirm, you are a squirrel, right?"

He narrowed his eyes a bit at the implication, trying to play up his aggressive side… even though his heart was beating a mile a minute in his chest. "Y-yes. Like I said, I was angry and wasn't thinking. It was a stupid thing to do, but they insulted my friend for no reason."

Celia nodded along. "I-it's true," she lied. "He was making a move like he was actually about to hurt them."

The superintendent stopped to think for a moment. "If Ferris was the aggressor in this situation… then why did she spray Erika and Jonathan? Wouldn't it make sense to incapacitate the attacker—who is, in this case, Mr. Harper?"

Ferris shrugged, "I can't tell you what she was thinking. It was probably because her friend, who was being mocked, was near me, and she didn't want to spray her. But the end result was the same. Well, at least the same in that no fight broke out."

He could feel the knot of anxiety twist itself even tighter. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up without tripping over himself and giving it away.

"…Huh," the man said. "That's… not the way I expected this story to go. Well, if you're being truthful and you really were about two attack two of your fellow students, it sounds like Ms. Tiffany's spraying was indeed in defense… Perhaps not defense of herself, but defense of her fellow students, for sure."

He chuckled a bit, "Really, I think she was looking out for you, Mr. Harper. If you'd actually gotten yourself into a fight with those two, you would've had your ass handed to you."

Ferris knew that was true and didn't argue the point. He felt the tension leave his shoulders, though, and he slumped back a bit. "Yes, sir, I think you're right. She really saved my ass."

"Mm…" he hummed in agreement. "Well, if the fault truly lies with you and not the skunk, this is no longer an issue for me. Meet with the dean of senior-year students after school to discuss your punishment. Don't worry—the wolves will be punished for saying mean words as well… though not to the same extent as someone who tried to start a fight. Are we all clear here?"

Celia nodded. "I am, sir."

Ferris nodded numbly along. "Yes, sir."

He realized that, for the first time in high school, he was about to get detention. He also realized this would involve his parents getting informed. He sunk a little inside at that, but the fact that he was able to keep Tiffany from getting in hot water after what she did for them eased that feeling somewhat.

The bell for the first period went off, causing him to jolt in surprise.

"Alright, kids, get to class," the bull said. "I'll send Tiffany an email saying to meet with the dean tomorrow about her punishment as well. Since she sprayed in defense of someone else instead of offensively… if I had to guess she'll probably get detention or something." He looked to the skunk in the room. "Ms. Rutherford, I'm sorry you were dragged into this, and I'm sorry Jonathan and Erika called you hurtful things. Just thank you for remaining calm throughout this whole thing."

She nodded as she stood up. "You're welcome, sir. Thank you, sir." The respectful way in which she talked to authority was so routine now that it was almost formulaic, even when she had just essentially been told "thank you for not stinking up the hallway". She and Ferris exited the superintendent's office.

He exhaled heavily as they left the office. He felt a little sick in his stomach, but otherwise was happy things turned out the way they did. They walked in silence towards the science wing for a little bit.

"So… I guess that went okay," he said, if only to break the silence between them.

As soon as they were out of sight of the bull's office, Celia turned around to Ferris and pulled him in for a tight hug. Luckily, this time nobody was around to shame them, as they were all in their first bell classrooms.

"Thank you…" she said shakily, not yet sure if she could explain how grateful she was without bursting into tears.

He awkwardly held his hands out, surprised. But soon, he wrapped his arms around her torso, holding her to himself. He felt like he had at least earned the right to enjoy a hug after the past couple days. "No problem", he said in a low voice since his face was so close to ear. "I'm happy I could help."

"I'm sorry for throwing you under the bus," the skunk said. "I know I was acting like I actually wanted Tiffany to get deglanded, but when it actually almost became a reality… I don't know, I panicked." She pulled out of the hug and looked into Ferris's eyes. "Are you mad at me?"

He did need a moment to really think about that. Was he mad? He went into that office with the intention of defending Tiffany, and at the end of the day, he did. But something still didn't sit right.

"I don't like lying," he said simply, "but we protected her. So I'm not really mad."

"I'm so sorry I made you do that…" she sighed, again falling against the squirrel and hugging him. "I feel terrible, Ferris…"

This time he rubbed small circles on the middle of her back, hoping to calm her a bit. He enjoyed the warmth of her body against his, but knowing how anguished she was, he tried not to focus on that. "It's ok, really."

He pressed his cheek against her head. "Get me a burger and we'll call it even," he said, pulling back from her and giving the skunk a cheeky grin.

She smiled and pulled out of the hug. "O-of course! After you meet with the dean after school today, I promise I'll take you out somewhere for dinner and drive you home! Hell, I'll drive you to and from school for the rest of the year to pay you back!"

He shook his head, laughing a bit. "No need for all the rides! But I'll happily accept the dinner invitation. I hope this time is a little less… eventful." 

"It better be. I'm taking you to one of my favorite restaurants today."

  
———

  
Celia, put off by the cold of the outside air, opted not to wait outside for Ferris and instead headed straight for her car when school let out. She knew that he would be at least a few minutes as he had to meet with the senior dean.

Sitting in the driver's seat after starting her car, Celia exhaled into her paws to warm them up before sending "Ferris (squirrel boy)" a text.

Celia: Hey I’m in my car. Text me when you’re done with the hardass and I’ll pull up

Ferris: 😖👍

He stepped out of the dean's office, sighing. Detention tomorrow, plus a form to be signed by his guardian. He folded the form up into his pocket and stalked out to the hall, hands in his jacket pocket.

He gave a little hiss through his teeth as he walked out into the cold. After sending Celia a text saying he was ready, he lightly jogged to the red car he was becoming very familiar with.

He popped the door open and plopped himself into the seat. "I'm alive! No flogging this time, but I have to spend a day in the dungeon," he joked.

"Shit…" she sighed. "I'm so sorry. I promise, I'll drive you to and from detention tomorrow. We can even do something afterwards, like hang out or watch a movie, if you want! I'm sure Tiffany would be happy to do something or pay you back in some other way, considering you literally saved her ass!"

He buckled himself in, thinking. It's not like he had anything planned for the weekends anyways. "Sure! Maybe we can watch some movies or something. My parents will be on a trip to the next town over, so they won't be around to bother us. Sound good? You could invite Tiffany too, if you want."

As they drove, Celia glanced over at the red squirrel. "Now, answer honestly and don't say yes just to make me happy: Do you actually want Tiff to come over or are you just being nice?"

His mouth opened and closed before he took a little sigh. "Well… I think it would be good to get reacquainted in a, uh, low pressure environment? But if you wanted to just keep it simple tomorrow, we can just keep it between you and me. Maybe ease into hanging out with Tiffany."

"No, I think that sounds great to invite her! Getting reacquainted with her after everything is a good idea. Don't worry, I'll try my best to keep things from getting awkward. Sound good?"

Ferris laughed. "Sounds good!"

He looked out of the window as they drive along, watching the power poles zip by. "So, what mystery place are you taking me?"

"Oh, it's this little restaurant not far from my house. I used to eat there all the time when I was a little girl, so I've got lots of good memories associated with it… and now hopefully you and I will make another!"

He smiled, liking the sound of that. Maybe it would be a bit more peaceful than their last meal.

"So you've lived in this town long then? Were you born here?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "All my life. Did you live in your hometown all your life?"

He nodded. "I was born there, yeah. Well, at a hospital halfway between our town and the next. I've been to cities and stuff but never spent more than a couple days in them, like when mom had cases she needed to go into town for."

Celia nodded along. "That sounds nice… I imagine you must miss the small town life."

He shrugged. "Well… I miss my friends. But that kind of place can be lame at times. Not much to do, unless you wanna drive an hour into town. And not much privacy either. Everyone is in everyone's business, lots of gossip."

"Oh god," she chuckled as she pulled off the main road and into a restaurant parking lot. "I don't even wanna begin to imagine how they'd gossip about something like you and me grabbing dinner so often."

Nodding, he unbuckled his seatbelt. "Oh yeah. This kinda thing wouldn't fly there. The second Bill's uncle sees it, he goes and tells all his buddies, and his buddies tell their buddies, then everyone's asking you if you're banging a skunk. It's messy."

She shook her head and laughed. "God, makes living here sound nice by comparison. At least if a rumor spreads about you here you can just transfer schools and pretty much forget about it."

They headed inside and stood around for a minute until someone would seat them.

He nodded, "Yeah. It's nice to have a bit of anonymity here. My school was the only one for the surrounding three towns, and even then the amount of students was much smaller, so everyone knew everything. It's kinda nice to just be another face in the crowd."

Someone came by and seated them quickly. He looked around the restaurant as the menus were slid over to them. He picked his up and scrutinized it.

Shortly after they sat down, a large cow came and greeted them at their table. "Celia!" the woman cried exactly. She leaned over the table for a hug, which Celia returned. "It's so good to see you again. Look at how much you've grown!"

He jumped in his seat at the sudden exclamation, looking around at who shouted his friend's name.

Celia chuckled and looked back over at the squirrel she'd brought with her. "Oh, this must be your… boyfriend?" the woman asked.

"N-no!" Celia quickly replied. "This is Ferris, and he's just a friend. I owed him a favor, so I took him here."

He felt his cheeks heat up at the implication. It was the first time someone made the suggestion without seeming disgusted. A welcome change, honestly, if not still inaccurate.

"H-hi!" he said, still recovering from that. "Nice to meet you!"

"Oh, Ferris!" the bovine said excitedly, extending a hand out to shake his. "It's nice to meet you."

He grinned and shook the cow's hand. It was nice to meet someone who was so enthusiastic. They seemed in short supply the last few days. "It's nice to meet you too, ma'am!"

"I'm the owner of this place, and I've been watching this skunk come by here almost every week since she was a baby!"

"Oh, stop…" Celia sighed. "You're embarrassing me!"

When she mentioned Celia's childhood, he shot the skunk a smirk. "Oh, really? You'll have to tell me all about it sometime…" he said teasingly.

"Oh, it's nothing remarkable…" Celia said.

"Nonsense!" the cow argued. "One time, this little girl wanted more of my mac and cheese, and when her parents said she'd had enough and couldn't get more, she threw a tantrum!"

"Diana!"

"Rolling on the floor and everything! Never seen such an upset little girl."

Ferris held his hand in front of his mouth in faux shock. "Celia! You didn't!"

He could barely get through that without breaking into laughter. He calmed down, breathing a bit heavily. "Come on, Cels. Everyone has a story like that. I'll tell you one of my silly tantrums some time!"

"I was a baby!" she insisted.

"Yeah, a four-year-old baby…" the cow muttered.

"Ok, thank you, Diana! You can leave now!" Celia playfully shoved the restaurant's owner away. Laughing, she indeed left to tend to other tables.

Ferris smiled, watching the cow walk off. He turned to Celia, resting his chin in his hand. "That's sweet. I'm glad you have someone like that."

"Yeah… She's probably the closest you can come to the small-town charm," Celia said. "Such a sweetheart with great hospitality… Even if she does remind you of embarrassing things you'd like to forget."

He nodded. "My mom is like that. Every time a friend came over, it was out with the baby pictures, especially the embarrassing ones. It's nice to have a regular place, though. Somewhere familiar."

"Yeah, I always get this warm kinda feeling when I come here. I guess that's just nostalgia, though." She looked down at the menu despite knowing exactly what she'd be getting: mac and cheese. She pulled out her phone, took a couple seconds to type on it, then set it down on the table again.

Ferris took the time to read over the menu, flipping through the laminated pages before choosing one for himself, some kind of spinach pasta that sounded delicious. He folded the menu back up and placed it on the table. "Have you talked to Tiffany at all? How is she doing?"

"I'm texting her now." Just then, Celia's phone screen lit up. She leaned over it to check the message. "Yep, she's really happy you saved her and she's down to hang tomorrow." It buzzed a second time, and Celia scoffed. "She's saying she'll even kiss the ground you walk on after that huge favor you did for her." She rolled her eyes.

He smiled at that, folding his hands on top of the menu. "Just tell her if she brings the snacks tomorrow, we're even!"

He rubbed idly at a water spot on the laminated menu. "I'm really glad this drama is over, honestly. I've never had detention before. Do they make you write something a thousand times or something? I heard at my old school, they made you copy dictionaries. I had a friend that made it all the way to J!"

Celia furrowed her brow and shook her head. "N… No, they don't make you do anything like that. You just sit in a room with a teacher for an hour. If the teacher's cool they might even let you do your homework during it."

Their waitress came to take their orders. "What'll it be, darlings?" the raven woman, who was barely even older than them, asked.

"Macaroni and cheese for me, please," Celia said. "Oh, and could I get an iced tea?"

Ferris opened his menu again and pointed. "Could I get the spinach alfredo? And a cup of coffee and a water, please!"

He folded the menu back up and handed it to the raven. He looked at Celia with a sly grin. "Mac and cheese, eh?"

"Hey, meet me out back so I can spray you," Celia said jokingly after their waitress had walked away. "Their mac and cheese is good as hell. You can hardly blame me for throwing a temper tantrum when I was a kid!"

He laughed, trying to keep quiet and not disturb the other guests. He took a moment to scan the room for the other patrons. Thankfully, none seemed interested in the squirrel and skunk having fun together. He gave a little sigh of relief.

"You'll have to let me try some when it gets here, then!"

Her laughing immediately stopped and her smile faded as she looked up at Ferris. "On a separate plate, right?" she asked, fearing that they were starting to look too much like a legitimate couple. If she still could, she wanted to nip that in the bud now.

He cocked his head, not really understanding why she suddenly turned much more intense. "Is it weird to just grab it off your plate with my fork? I did that with my friends back home all the time." He shrugged, "But, sure. We can get another plate. I don't mind. Are you germaphobic or something?"

"N-no," she whispered, lowering her head closer to the table some. "It's just, that's what couples do, y'know? Sharing food? I'd hate to make people think…"

He stared at her with a bewildered expression. "…Is it? I guess I've seen some couples do it. If you wanna avoid any misunderstandings, I get it. Let's just get another plate when they bring the drinks."

She nodded back. Not even a minute later, the raven came back with their food and Celia requested an extra plate when they brought out the food.

Once they were alone again, Celia sighed loudly. "I'm sorry. Am I going too far out of my way not to appear like a couple?"

He stopped when she asked that, about to take a sip of his coffee. He put his arm down, feeling this wasn't really a conversation that you sip through. "I think… I think you're very worried about being seen as a couple by other people. And I get it. It's not really something that's generally accepted. Though I hear it's better now than when our parents were our age. But just being a skunk seems like it has its own challenges. I imagine that kinda heat is a bit too much to bear."

He did end up taking that sip and swallowing. "I guess… I guess everyone has their own prejudices. But I don't think we've really done anything worth being mistaken as a couple…" He thought for a moment, "Except the hugs, I guess…"

"Hey, friends hug each other too!" she said lightheartedly. "But yeah, I'm glad you can understand how I feel about it… All my life, really, I've felt like it's my duty not to upset others, and I've lived accordingly. I guess I never really thought about how that would mess with the rest of my life and interfere with other aspects of it, such as simply sharing a meal with my new friend." She held her brown drink and absentmindedly gazed into it. "I dunno. Maybe I really am thinking about this too much."

Ferris didn't really have an answer to that. He honestly was quite out of his depth. He looked down at his coffee, sloshing around the contents some. 

"I couldn't tell you if you are or not. I'd like you to be able to spend time with me without worrying about that stuff, but I supposed that's a bit naïve."

She shrugged. "Yeah, it might be… Might explain why you so rarely see boys and girls of different species hanging out: It's a lot easier to not draw any attention by hanging out with a gender you're not attracted to."

He gave a little sigh. "I guess you're right." He put his coffee down. "But, I'm not going to let that get in the way of us having fun together. I don't like the idea of not hanging out because of what other people think. I like spending time with you."

She smiled at the squirrel. "I like it, too. And tomorrow with Tiffany should be fun! I have to admit, it'll be nice watching her suck up to somebody for once. She's not the type of girl to do that most of the time, although I'm sure I didn't need to tell you that." She looked to her side and saw their food was coming.

He nodded, smiling back at her. "It'll be interesting, that's for sure! Considering our first meeting, I bet it's gonna be a bit of a whiplash effect!"

He chuckled as their food was set down in front of them. The raven asked if they needed anything else and Ferris shook his head. He looked across at the mac and cheese in front of the skunk. "The legendary dish I've heard so much about!"

He took a forkful of his pasta and took a bite. "Mmmn, this is really good, too. I don't suppose you'd want some in return?"

She shook her head. "Nah, I've probably had everything on the menu here at least once."

She scooped a few spoonfuls of her macaroni and cheese onto the spare plate their waitress had brought and slid it over to Ferris. "Here you are. Prepare yourself for the best mac and cheese you've ever had," she said with a smirk as she began eating from her own bowl.

He stuck his fork into it, pulling it to his mouth and taking a big bite. His eyes went wide. He swallowed it, licking his lips. "Holy shit. Now I understand the tantrum!"

Celia laughed. "Exactly! Now you get it!" She ate quietly for a moment. "My family and I usually eat here at least once a week, and I just can't tire of their macaroni."

He took another big bite of his pasta. "I'll have to tell my folks about this place. We don't get much time together, but I definitely wanna come back here again."

He chewed thoughtfully. His eyes were on the skunk in front of him. Without the anxiety of other people staring or worrying too much about how they were perceived, it really made for a relaxing atmosphere. "I'm excited to try everything else. And they seem like they're really nice here."

"Yeah, they're super nice," Celia agreed. "Sometimes too nice, almost pushy, and they might accuse you of interspecies dating…" She smiled, thinking back to Diana's prior comment. "But they're sweet as hell, and that's what counts."

Nodding, he put his fork down, sipping on his coffee. "I suppose it is. Though Diana at least didn't seem rude about it or anything."

He thought about it for a moment, and decided he'd just come out and ask. "I know you're anxious to avoid being seen as being in an interspecies relationship, but I'm just curious. How do you feel about them? On a personal level. Do you think they're wrong?"

She was silent for a short while as she thought. "I guess… Well, I suppose if they don't have kids, they're not really hurting anyone. Offspring of interspecies relationships are usually infertile, aren't they?"

He shrugged a bit at that. "That's what I've heard, at least. But yeah, as long as they don't have kids, I don't really see a problem with it either. It's not like everybody wants kids or anything."

"Yeah, I guess… Still, doesn't it, like, seem kinda icky? Breeding with another species? I don't know, I just can't get over my knee-jerk reaction of disgust."

He tried to think about how to respond to that. "Icky? I guess it could be seen that way. But I bet it's someone's thing. Probably a lot of people's thing."

She smirked. "You trying to tell me you jerk off to interspecies porn?" Celia teased.

He blushed wildly at that, his eyes going as wide as dinner plates. "N-no! I'm just saying that I don't see anything wrong with it! I mean, not the porn, just…" he exhaled loudly. "You did that on purpose," he sulked.

She grinned ear to ear. "Hey, I'm not shaming you if you _do_ do that! Everybody's got their thing." She took a few more bites of her macaroni before already starting to feel full from the huge bowl. "Have you seen some of those interviews, though, of hybrids talking about when they first found out that they couldn't have kids of their own?" She shook her head. "So heartbreaking…"

His cheeks were still burning hot, and he decided to neither confirm nor deny her suspicion. When she brought up the interviews, he nodded. "Yeah. It's really sad. But I hear they're getting better with letting them adopt, so I guess it's not so bad. Lots of little kids needing homes."

"Yeah, that's true. I know there's a whole lot of orphaned skunks out there. My mom and dad donate and volunteer with them a lot."

She caught herself and shook her head. "No, sorry! I realized that I talked too much about skunk stuff while we were eating yesterday, so I'm trying not to do that today. Why don't you tell me about some squirrel stuff?" she said despite the fact that she had no idea what there really was to share about his species.

He leans back and thinks for a moment. "We're not really interesting, I think. Hmm… a lot of them become acrobats—we're pretty good at climbing and jumping. A lot of those people have to practice, but I bet I could probably jump pretty far. Track and field is always what I did best, especially the long jumps. Oh, our front teeth never stop growing, so we have stones that we chew on to grind them down. I actually got mine off a website that specializes in them."

He tapped his chin, thinking. "Our ankles are really flexible. Our ancestors climbed a lot of trees and it helps with footing. We can turn them 180 degrees. Also, we have a keen sense of smell. You might have not noticed yesterday, but when Tiffany sprayed, it hit me like a semi truck, even though I was kinda far away. I bet if it were in my face, it would have been a lot worse. A lot of squirrels become detectives because of that, especially for missing persons."

He shrugged. "Other than that, there really isn't much to say!"

"Oh, wow, I had no idea your sense of smell was so good!" she remarked. "Is it, like, even better than bloodhounds in tracking down scents? I always got the impression that they had the best noses, since they're the ones you always see in detective shows on TV."

She added, "Also, I gotta see these rocks of yours sometime."

He shook his head. "Not really. Dogs have way more sensitive noses, so they usually are on the more high-profile teams. I've seen squirrels in the background of cop dramas before, but other than that, it's not really a well-known thing."

He smiled a bit. "I got a rock on me right now. It's been in my mouth though, so that might be a bit weird. But I can show it to you, at least."

Celia thought about it for a second. "When we're done eating, sure!" She thought of another question as she chewed her food. "So, were you still able to smell Tiffany's spray when we got to school this morning? Also, can you actually store things in your cheeks?"

He nodded, "Yeah, a little bit. By tomorrow it'll be too faint for me, but any canines will be smelling it for days. Including those poor wolves." He smirked at that.

"And yeah, I can cram a bunch into my mouth. But that's considered, uhm, impolite."

Celia was quiet as she silently schemed. "I see… So I get that it'd be impolite for you to do it here in a restaurant, buuuut…" She smirked, "If I were to bring over a couple bags of jumbo marshmallows tomorrow, do you think you could…?" She mimed stuffing marshmallow after marshmallow into her rapidly inflating cheeks.

He laughed, "Haha, if you wanna waste all those marshmallows on me, we could certainly do a little experiment! It sounds like fun. Might be a little gross, though. Y'know, if I go past my own capacity."

"Oh, I'm more than happy with wasting those marshmallows to see this. Tiffany and I should have a lot of fun watching, so it'll definitely be worth it." With maybe a fourth of her pasta remaining, Celia finally gave up on finishing the whole bowl.

He snickered at that, "I'm happy to be a sideshow for you two." He polished off his own pasta, putting his fork into the empty bowl. "Wow, that was amazing. We'll have to come back here sometime soon!"

"Gladly!" she said. "Oh, hey, are you a big drinker? Because if you're down, Tiff and I can bring over some of our parents' alcohol this weekend."

His brows raised at that. He knew his parents were going to be gone until Sunday afternoon, so no worries there. "I haven't in a while! But that sounds fun. They won't notice at all, will they?"

"Nah, my parents are actually cool with me drinking a bit so long as I don't drive afterwards. So do you mind if we sleep over? I'm sure Tiffany and I could share a bed if we need to."

He nodded emphatically. "Sure! We have a guest room for when my sister comes back from school on break, but you guys can use that. We've got a nice shower too if you need it in the morning!"

"Oh my God, I already know this is gonna be so fun!" Celia said excitedly. "Just keep in mind while you're in detention that there's gonna be a fun weekend ahead of you."

As she continued to think about their plans, she added, "Hell, if you get Tiff drunk enough, maybe she'll even show you some of her 'target practice', if you want." She held up air quotes as she said target practice. "There's a big wooded area behind your house, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah! There's a little wood right between us and the highway, we could definitely get up to some mischief back there!" 

He scratched his nose a bit, thinking. "What should we watch, though? Something scary? Or do you like comedies more?"

Celia laughed. "I know I just said no skunk talk, but… You really think it's at all a good idea to watch a scary movie—rife with jump scares and everything—with two skunks?" She covered her mouth using her paw as she giggled. "I know I say I wanna be treated like anyone else, but you have to keep these things in mind, too!"

His eyes widened. "Oh… _Oh_. Yeah, uh, good call. Maybe we should think about something else to watch." He laughed nervously, happy that she seemed to be in such good spirits. Considering the last few days, this was probably the most relaxed and open he had seen her. And her laugh was really cute.

_Oof, let's not pursue THAT train of thought._

His phone buzzed, and he dug it out of his pocket. His mother was wondering where he was. He tucked it back in, figuring he would leave her waiting for a bit.

Their waitress came back and Celia requested the bill, and then that just one check was fine. As she waited for the bird to come back, she said to Ferris, "Remind me, what time your detention is tomorrow?"

He leaned back in his chair. "Nine! I need to be at school at nine o'clock on a Saturday! Can you believe that?"

"It's ridiculous," she agreed. "Well, I'll pick you up at your house at, say, 8:45? And was it one or two hours?"

"Just one, I think! You can drop me off and I'll just text you when I'm out." He drained his coffee, setting the empty mug down on the table.

"Alright then!" She left some bills on the table and stood up. "So I'll pick you up, drop you off, kill about half an hour, then I'll go pick up Tiffany, then come back to school to get you, then we can all drive to your house. How's that sound?"

He got up, pulling his jacket back on. "Sounds good to me! Let's get outta here."

He headed towards the door and out to the parking lot. He bit his lip as he stepped out. "Jesus, it got so cold out!"

Celia hurried to her ugly red car, eager to get out of the cold. She shivered as she finally sat down and shut the door behind her. "Damn! The weather is changing just way too fast," she chuckled and started her car so it'd start to warm up sooner. She turned to the squirrel, "Hey, have your parents asked why you keep getting home so late?"

He slipped in on the other side, rubbing his paws together to warm them up. He nodded. "They know I made a friend, so I guess they just assumed I'm out with you." 

He kept it intentionally vague. He knew that he should probably tell her that he had hidden her species from his parents, but that didn't seem to be the best way to end their little outing, so he kept it to himself. "What about your folks?"

"Yeah, I told them about you," Celia said, intentionally omitting the part where she asked her dad how to tell if a boy had a crush on her. "I'm sure I'll tell them about you more when I ask to borrow their alcohol tonight, but they're generally kinda chill." She pulled out of their parking space.

He nodded. "I'm surprised. Your parents seem really cool. If I asked my parents for booze, they'd be mortified, especially since my mom got that job at the new firm. Being a 'simple country lawyer' is one thing, but she's taking this new job really seriously."

He smirked, "But, hey, what they don't know won't hurt them, huh?"

"Exactly the right attitude," she said with a smile. "As for my parents, I guess they understand that if they try to ban me from drinking, I'm just gonna do it anyway but hide it from them. But yeah, they're pretty cool, chill."

He gave a little snort at that. He looked out the window at the setting sun, just about to dip down past the horizon. The days really were getting shorter. He gave a yawn and stretched out in his seat. "After all that food, I'm about ready to pass out. Maybe I'll skip the homework tonight and see if they let me do it in detention tomorrow!"

"Oof, brave," Celia said. "And if they say no, you're gonna put off the homework to Sunday—the day after all that drinking and stuff? I mean, if you think you can handle it…"

He gave a little salute to her from the passenger seat. "Don't let the skinny body fool you; I'm practically a tank!" 

He laughed again, shaking his head. "Nah, but I think I can struggle through it ok. And there's a dude in bio that sits next to me. He seems cool, maybe he'll give me a hand before class starts Monday."

"Ah, seems like you've got it all figured out then," the skunk said as she pulled into Ferris's neighborhood. "You better rest well tonight! Because you know that we'll be up late tomorrow! …Ugh, that sounded dirty."

He laughed that off, figuring following up with a dirty joke was maybe not the best move. Hopping out, he leaned in quick. "8:45, right? I'll see you then!" He closed the door and waved before pattering his way up the driveway and to his door so he could escape the cold.


	4. Saturday, October 3

Just before 10 AM, Celia pulled into the nearly empty parking lot with her spotted skunk friend in the passenger seat.

Tiffany smelled strongly of a myriad of soaps, shampoos, and perfumes to mask the scent of her musk that'd clung to her for the past two days. Despite any skunk's best efforts, they are just about guaranteed to smell at least a tiny bit for the following week after a spray. Some infinitesimally small amount of the pungent fluid always sticks around on the rear despite all the best attempts to remove it, although what remained was usually only detectable by the most sensitive of noses. To most others, she now just smelled like a perfume store.

"Oh, I didn't ask," Celia said, "you snuck out some alcohol, right?"

Tiffany lifted up a canvas bag, from inside which the rattling of fluid-filled glass bottles could be heard. "Couldn't forget it!" she said with a grin.

"Good," the other skunk said as she parked the car and pulled out her phone to text Ferris.

Celia: We’re outside when you’re done!

Ferris exited the school to the cool air, seeing his breath fog up immediately. It had been strange to be in the large school by himself. Instead of claustrophobic crowds, there were quiet, wide-open hallways.

He easily spotted the red car in the empty lot, scampering up to it. Seeing Tiffany in the passenger seat, he opened the back door and slid in before closing the door quickly.

"Hey! Hope I didn't keep you waiting long. You good to go?"

His nose wrinkled for a moment, catching just the tiniest hint of musk. But with the perfumes and soaps, it covered the smell well enough that he could easily ignore it. Remembering what Tiffany did for them, it was the least he could do.

"Yep!" Celia said as she started to back the car out of its parking space.

Tiffany turned around to look at Ferris in the back. "How was detention?" she asked with a mischievous smile for a second before her features softened. "Seriously, thank you so much for taking the blame for me," she said honestly. "If it weren't for you…" She shuddered and turned around to face forward again. "I don't even wanna think about it. Just, thank you so much, squirrel boy. I mean it."

Ferris was taken aback by her demeanor, which was vastly different from the rude and panicked Tiffany he had met a few days ago. He recovered quickly and smiled back. "Hey, no worries. I'd say it makes us even."

"And detention sucked!" he exclaimed, "I'm going to have to do my homework tomorrow. Hope I don't feel like crap. They made me just sit there. I couldn't tell if it was a childish punishment or some form of torture. Kinda both!"

"Heh, I guess that's what they're going for," Celia said.

"I'm lucky they only slapped with a work detail this time. Detention is boring as hell," Tiffany said.

After things were quiet for a couple seconds, Celia asked Ferris in the back, "So, what movies are we watching tonight?"

"Well, we have a pretty big collection, my dad is still crazy about DVDs, so if they don't sound good we can pick a different one. I was thinking some action movie like _Purrminator II_ or _Escape From Zoo York City_ , and then I had something funny, like Boarat."

"I dunno know any of those are," Tiffany shrugged, "so I'm fine with any of 'em."

"Yeah, me too," Celia added as she drove them into Ferris's neighborhood.

"Honestly, wine can make any movie good, so I don't really care." Tiffany pulled out one of the wine bottles she'd smuggled in her bag and started looking over the label for its alcohol content.

He gave a low whistle and looked at it over her shoulder. "Ooh. Looks fancy."

He noticed them roll past a local mom walking with her kid and he accidentally made eye contact with her. It suddenly dawned on him that if word of this got back to his parents, it would mean big trouble.

 _Hopefully the neighbors aren't too friendly._ Soon, they pulled into his driveway and Ferris pushed the thought to the back of his mind. _No use worrying about it now_.

He hopped out the door and waited for Tiffany and Celia to gather themselves before moving on to the front door. He stuck his keys in and opened the door, flipping on the lights.

"No shoes. Dad's serious about that. He'll blow a gasket."

"Sounds like Daddy has a foot fetish," Tiffany muttered as she started taking her shoes off in the foyer, earning her a slap on the back from Celia as she removed her shoes as well.

"Know where I could get a corkscrew to open up this wine?" Tiffany asked as she went straight to the kitchen to get started on drinking. Celia, meanwhile, meandered over to the living room to check out the aforementioned DVD collection.

Ferris called after her, "Right-hand drawer beside the sink!"

He turned to look at Celia, in front of "The Shelf". It was a large, three-sectioned shelf unit about six and a half feet tall. One section was laden with thick textbooks on general law, criminal law, and criminology. The middle section was dominated by boxes upon boxes of DVDs. They were all alphabetically ordered and standing like soldiers at attention. The third shelf was a mishmash. Near the bottom were children's books, and it seemed the remaining shelves were evenly divided, with a sticker on the middle shelf that read:  
Avery ↑  
Ferris ↓

Crammed into them were various novels. Above, anywhere from English classics to sappy vampire romance novels, and some true crime books. Below were many science fiction and fantasy novels such as _House Black_ , as well as a few books about writing and real world events.

Ferris walked up beside her. "Yeah. Like I said, he's crazy about them. We have even more boxes of them. These are just his favorites."

"It's an impressive collection," Celia admitted. "I don't recognize probably half of these, so I'll just let you pick what to watch."

Just then, a loud pop was heard from the adjacent kitchen as Tiffany finally uncorked the bottle of wine. "Got it!" she cried triumphantly.

Ferris grinned at her as Tiffany cheered from the kitchen. He nodded his head towards the kitchen. "Let's get some drinks first." 

He led her into the adjoining room, finding Tiffany standing by the sink with a newly opened bottle. He moved to a nearby cabinet. "So, do you guys want wine glasses, or is anything fine?"

"Ooh, are we being fancy? I like it!" Tiffany teased. "Why don't you grab us some wine glasses for the wine, and regular cups for whatever Celia brought."

Celia chuckled as she started pulling out the contents of her own bag. She set down an unopened bottle of vodka, a half-drank bottle of rum, and a couple 2-liters of soda to mix them with.

Nodding, he took down three crystal wine glasses and three older looking plastic cups, one of them with peeling decals of old cartoon characters. He put them out on an island in the middle of the kitchen. "There you go! Pour away."

Tiffany poured the red wine into two glasses before looking over to the striped skunk. "Hey, Celia, you want some wine too?"

Celia didn't speak for a second, then said, "Nah, I'll stick with my stuff to start." She walked over to grab one of the cartoony cups.

"Suit yourself," the other skunk shrugged and set the bottle down. She handed one of the filled glasses to Ferris before saying to him, unprompted, "You look like a lightweight."

Ferris grinned, taking a sip of it. To be honest, it was his first time with wine. Back home they had drunk anything from shitty beer to hard alcohol, but not wine.

He licked his lips. "Looks can be deceiving, Tiff! I can handle my own. You girls wanna head to the living room again?"

"Yeah, sounds good." Tiffany made her way into the living room, set her glass of wine down on the coffee table, and plopped herself down. She made no effort to move her tail as it dropped next to her and laid out its entire length, taking up pretty much as much space as possible.

Celia, meanwhile, sat down in a recliner separate from the main couch and eagerly drank her heavily diluted rum. "So, what are we watching first, Ferris?"

The couch was a two-part sectional with plenty of room for the squirrel and Tiffany. He placed his glass on the coffee table, got up and began running his finger over the spines of the DVD cases. He selected one and showed it off to them before opening up the disc player and popping it in. He walked back to the couch and sank down into it. "Y'know," he started, flicking the TV and player on with the remote, hearing the disc spinning inside, "I don't think I've ever drank this early in the day."

"Consider it college prep," Celia quipped.

Tiffany added, "The sooner you start drinking, the drunker you can get! And Celia's right. Typically this'd be called pre-gaming, except we're not legal yet so we can't go anywhere else."

Ferris laughed at that, starting up the schlocky 80s action flick. The dialogue was predictably cheesy and the special effects even cheesier. Ferris barely focused on it as he sipped, getting used to the flavour of it.

"I suppose that's true! We should be clear till tomorrow evening, though. So we can do our pre-gaming, gaming, and post-gaming in comfort!"

"Until one of us pukes or starts getting really rambunctious," Celia laughed. "I'm looking at you Tiffany! This girl can get out of hand quickly when she drinks!"

"I do not!" she playfully bantered with Celia. "I'm just fun, that's all!"

"Oh, so it's your idea of fun to strip all your clothes off and say you're gonna go live feral in the woods?!" Celia teased.

"Ok, I can't take responsibility for that; I was blacked out."

Ferris was taken aback, and then pictured a bare-ass Tiffany sprinting into the woods and started laughing raucously. "You've gotta be kidding me! That's amazing. I hope you pace yourself, but I'd be lying if I said that doesn't sound hilarious!"

Tiffany blushed just a bit. "I doubt I'll get all that crazy, ok?" she assured Ferris. "Celia, you've seen me at my craziest, so I give you permission to cut me off if you see fit, ok?"

"Sounds good," Celia chuckled, shaking her head and settling back in her chair and facing the TV screen.

They went quiet for a bit, watching the movie unfold. Cheesy one-liners and drawn out gun fights. Ferris felt his face warming up as he soon finished his first glass. He placed it back on the coffee table and looked at the two girls. "You guys have known each other a while, then?"

Celia nodded. "Since she came here in ninth grade. We only started drinking and all that last year, though."

"Kind of a weird coincidence that our grade has two skunk girls while the next three classes have had none," Tiffany added. "Guess that's just probability, though."

He nodded, listening to them. "We didn't have any at my old school. I think one skunk guy lived in a nearby town, but not a kid."

He decided not to bring up the kind of stuff his mom said about them, even when she had to defend one in court.

"Anybody need another drink?"

"I'm fine, thanks," said Celia. But Tiffany had other plans.

The spotted skunk quickly downed the rest of her glass of wine and, after wincing at the strong, bitter taste for a second, handed her glass to the squirrel. "More for me, please!"

He smirked and took her glass with him to the kitchen. He didn't bother pausing the movie, as he had seen it probably ten times. He poured the glasses quickly and returned, passing Tiffany her glass.

"So, what do you think of the movie so far? Pretty lame, right? I kinda like it though."

Celia said, "It's… very 80s. That's about all I can say about it."

"I think it's great!" Tiffany commented, already feeling a slight buzz from what she'd drunk. While Ferris was in the kitchen she had leaned forward in amazement to watch the cheesy action play out.

He grinned at that, sitting back and enjoying the film. His tail would flick when he was expecting something exciting to happen, as if he had it all memorized.

An hour and a half later and the credits began to roll. Celia had gotten up to pee and refill her beverage a few times throughout it, but Tiffany had stayed glued to her seat and watching the movie the whole time.

Ferris grinned wide as he looked at Tiffany. "Y'know, there's four more of those movies in the series. You seemed like you were really into that."

He was a few glasses in now, slouched back into the couch with his legs out in front of him. His head felt like it was swimming, but pleasantly so.

"So, ladies. What now? You hungry at all?"

"I guess I could—"

"Starving!" Tiffany cut Celia off. "Can we order pizza? Obviously none of us can drive right now."

Celia added, "Pizza sounds good. I can buy."

He smiled, pulling out his phone. "It's all good! You guys brought the booze, I'm happy to get the pizza. What do you want on them?"

"I'm cool with anything," Celia lied to avoid something she didn't want to admit.

"Pepperoni for me, please!" Tiffany said, heading into the bathroom after that long movie.

Celia turned back to Ferris. "You cool with pepperoni too?" she asked.

 _Ah. This is probably when I should tell her_. It was something he didn't really like talking about, since he was always worried about being preachy and was always getting hassled about it by friends back home.

"Umm… I'm actually a vegetarian, but I don't mind getting another one with just veggies on it! It's not a problem. I should have said something earlier."

"Oh, for real?" Celia asked. "That's crazy, I'm a pescatarian myself! I was vegetarian for a year or so, but then I caved. Why don't you and I split a vegetarian pizza and leave the pepperoni for Tiffany?"

He nodded, dialing the pizza place and wandering into the kitchen. After a few minutes he came back, flopping back down and sipping at his drink. "Yeah. I went to a luau when I was ten. Saw a whole pig on a spit. It terrified me. I haven't touched meat since!"

"God, I can't blame you after something like that! Personally I just woke up one day and realized I don't even like meat that much, so I stopped eating it."

Celia sat back down on the couch as she heard a toilet flush down the hall. "So, what do you think of the nicer Tiffany?" she asked.

Ferris smiled. "Y'know, I was a little terrified when you were coming to pick me up. But seeing her like this… I understand why you would be her friend. She's fun! Very expressive. She wears her heart on her sleeve."

"Mhm," Celia hummed in agreement. "When she's not trying to be scary, she's actually a huge sweetheart." The bathroom door opened. "But don't tell her I said that!" she whispered as Tiffany made her way back over.

Ferris gave her a conspiratorial wink before Tiffany reentered the room. As she sat down he looked over to her. "Hey, what do you guys wanna do till the pizza gets here? I got more movies, but I also have video games and board games and stuff."

"Movies!" Tiffany said.

"Video games!" said Celia at the same time.

The two skunks stared at each other as if in a competition, then burst out laughing. "Guess it's up to you then, Ferris," Celia chuckled.

His eyebrows raised in surprise. "Hmm. How about some games? We can watch another movie when we get the pizza!"

He scampered out of the room and to his bedroom. He collected all the stuff he'd need before coming back out to hook it up. He practically had to dive into the TV stand to reach the HDMI port, butt and big fluffy tail sticking out almost comically.

While Ferris was bent over, Tiffany, on her fourth glass of wine now, walked over to the squirrel wound up her hand like she was about to slap him on the ass. She then turned to Celia to gauge her opinion, and she rapidly shook her head. Giggling silently, she walked back over to the couch and fell back on it.

Ferris extricated himself with only a little difficulty before passing out controllers. "I have a few multiplayer games if you guys wanna play those!"

"I'm bad at pretty much all of them, but I'll try my best!" Celia told Ferris.

"And I'll watch." Tiffany pulled out her phone to check her notifications.

Blissfully unaware of the brutal slap he almost endured, he booted up the fighting game and let Celia get used to the controls before they started a match. He had only ever played it with friends before, so he wasn't that good at it himself.

  
———

  
A few matches went by before the doorbell went off. Ferris rushed off to grab the pizza.

The three sat down at the kitchen table to eat the pizza when suddenly Celia remembered something.

"Wait!" she shouted at Ferris before he could open their box. "We still gotta do the marshmallow thing!"

His eyes widened in confusion before he suddenly realized. 

"Oh! Right. Where are they, anyways?"

She reached into the bag she'd brought that contained all the things she'd need for staying overnight and withdrew two sealed bags of jumbo marshmallows.

"What's the marshmallow thing?" Tiffany asked, already starting to eat her pizza.

"His cheeks can expand real huge and hold stuff," Celia explained.

"No way!!" the other skunk said excitedly.

He laughed at their enthusiasm, eyeing up the bags. "Don't expect too much! I definitely won't be able to fit all of those."

He cracked open the first bag and started popping them into his mouth. He got 5 or 6 with no real issue. Once he reached 10, the two girls could see him rearrange them in his mouth, one cheek protruding. He kept popping them in with seemingly no problems.

Soon, there were only seven left in the first bag and his cheeks puffed out ridiculously wide. He must have fitted close to 30, if not a few more than that.

"Mmfmm mf mm?"

"Oh? Think you can take more?" Tiffany teased, leaning over the table and popping one more marshmallow in his mouth before laughing harder.

"Tiffany, don't! You're gonna make him choke."

And he very nearly did. They heard muffled sounds of distress as Ferris turned and leaned over the sink, spitting out about half of what he had in his mouth, coughing a little. He swallowed the rest after chewing and looked back at them, still leaning over the sink.

"Ugh, that was _brutal_."

Celia hurried over to Ferris's aid while Tiffany was too busy laughing her ass off. The kinder skunk patted him on the back as he coughed up the marshmallows. Meanwhile, Tiffany was examining the bag they'd come from.

"Hm… 30 marshmallows in a bag, and there were 7 left when you hit your limit. Dude, Ferris, you fit 23 jumbo fuckin' marshmallows in your mouth!"

He quickly rinsed his mouth out and spat, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "Y-yeah, I'm pretty surprised myself. I had never tried that many before."

He looked at Celia and smiled at her as she patted his back, standing up again.

"Sorry Tiffany made you choke. 23 really is an impressive number, though." Celia handed Ferris a mixed drink as a reward.

He nodded in thanks as he took the drink, gulping down a few sips before grabbing a few slices of pizza. "Let's just say I hope cramming stuff into my mouth doesn't become a trend with you guys."

Tiffany chuckled, "Only if you want it to be, big boy!"

"Tiff, cut it out!" Celia barked across the table, partially as a joke and partially because Tiffany was starting to act like she had genuine sexual interest in the squirrel.

Ferris blushed at the insinuation. Needless to say, he wasn't used to having innuendos like that thrown at him. He gave a nervous chuckle and ate his pizza as an excuse not to respond to that.

"Hey. What do you think those wolves are up to? You think they've been able to get that stuff out of their fur?"

"I doubt the guy would have much trouble," Tiffany said, "because he looked to be a short-fur. The chick, on the other hand, I'm sure is still trying to wash my musk out of her thicker, longer fur." She giggled a bit as she thought about how inconvenienced she ought to be feeling.

He smiled at that. Part of him felt bad, but then he remembered how they had spoken to him and Celia, and that certainly lessened the blow. 

"Yeah, that's gotta be a real pain. Maybe they'll think twice next time. I hope so, at least. Celia and I went to a diner and an old dude was giving us a hard time. I thought she was gonna give him a shot! Thankfully, the waiter stepped in before anything bad happened."

"Celia? Spray?!" Tiffany scoffed. "She'd never!"

"Tiffany, shut up!" the other skunk hissed. "I would if I actually needed to!"

"You know if you keep telling yourself 'you don't need to spray yet' forever, one day you're gonna be killed without having sprayed your attacker at all."

"Am not!"

He raised his hands, "Woah, I bet she could do it if she was in real danger. You shoulda seen the way she was looking at that dude. I hope I never piss you guys off that bad."

"I wouldn't spray if I'm just pissed off," Celia clarified. "Only if I'm attacked."

"I'll spray ya if you really piss me off," Tiffany giggled. "People should know to respect skunks!"

He shook his head a bit. "Yeah, seriously. I don't get why people are such pricks about you guys. Lions could rip me apart with their huge teeth, but you never hear anyone shitting on them for that."

The spotted skunk shrugged. "I guess because their methods of scaring people off don't consist of spraying something outta their assholes—"

"Tiff, TMI!"

"—and stinking up the area and the attacker for the next week or so. I gotta admit though, what Celia and I can do is way cooler than simply tearing someone up with your teeth."

"I guess you could say it's fairly unique," Celia conceded, eating.

He snickered at that. "Yeah, it certainly evokes a reaction, that's for sure! A twitch of a tail and everyone's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates. It's actually kinda funny."

"I'll admit," said Celia, "that initial feeling of power is kind of nice… until you remember that what you're threatening is just really gross."

"Embrace that feeling, Celia!" Tiffany urged.

"I will not!"

Giggling, Ferris finished his couple pieces of pizza. "With great power comes great responsibility, or something like that! Anyways, whatcha guys wanna do once we're all pizza'd out?"

Tiff shrugged. "You two seemed to be enjoying yourselves with those games, even if Celia did suck."

"Oh, shut up," Celia scoffed back at her.

Smirking, he finished up his drink as well. He could definitely feel the alcohol now, giving him a pleasant swimming sensation in his head. He certainly didn't announce it, though, not wanting to sound like a 14-year-old drinking for the first time.

"She was doing great! A little more and I'm sure she could beat my ass handily."

"Yeah, right." Celia rolled her eyes.

"We should play something like truth or dare!" Tiffany blurted out.

"That sounds kinda fun," Celia confessed, "but I don't know if that's the best thing to do when you're so buzzed, Tiff."

He had never played that before, as it wasn't usually something a bunch of boys played together. "Yeah, that does sound fun! And really, isn't that the best time to play? So I've heard, at least…"

"Well, I guess that's true. So long as you don't dare Tiffany to spray, Ferris, we're all good." Tiffany giggled at Celia's suggestion of spraying her.

"C'mon guys, let's play!" Tiffany said excitedly, grabbing her wine glass and running into the living room even though the other two were still eating.

Ferris thought it was nice seeing Tiffany in such a good mood. It had been a particularly stressful few days for the three of them, so it felt amazing to be able to relax and have fun. To be honest, it was probably the most relaxed he had been since moving.

"No spraying, promise!" he saluted, finishing the last bite of crust and walking back to the living room with Tiffany. He plopped down with his drink on the floor in front of the couch where he sat earlier.

Celia joined them in the living room. The TV was still on the pause screen for the game the two had just been playing, Ferris currently with 2 stocks remaining while Celia had just 1.

"So, who goes first?" Tiffany asked excitedly.

Said Ferris, "How about you, since you suggested it?"

"Alright," the spotted skunk said. "Ferris, truth or dare?"

Celia took a big sip of her drink as she got to wait.

He thought about it for a moment before deciding to take the safer option for now. "Truth!"

"You ever kissed a girl?" she asked so immediately that it would be fair to assume she already had that one planned.

He stammered, caught off guard by the immediate question. "Uh, yeah. Just one girl that I dated for a few weeks in middle school. Is it my turn now?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"Celia, truth or dare?"

"Umm…" she looked into her drink as if to gauge how willing she'd be to do a dumb task. "Let's do truth."

He thought about it for a minute. "Have you ever gotten in a fight?"

"Um, no. I guess I've gotten close once or twice, but then I raise my tail and they run off. So, is it my turn now?"

He nodded to her, sipping at his drink.

"Tiffany, truth or dare."

"I'll start with truth, today."

She decided to use this as a chance to shame her friend. "How many people have you sprayed, excluding your family when you were little?"

She stopped to think about, then answered. "Six… Maybe seven. Oh, and then those wolves the other day, so make that eight or nine."

Ferris's eyes widened at that. "Holy shit, Tiff. You really aren't kidding around."

"They were all fucking with me or tryna start a fight!" she defended her choices. "You see, if you're still a minor, they can't legally degland you for spraying yet. So I took full advantage of that and let people know their place!"

He giggled at that. "Well, guess you'll just have to be a bit more careful from now on," he teased the skunk.

"Yeah, it's bullshit," she sighed.

"It is not!" Celia argued, trying to get her to see reason.

"Anyway! Is it my turn now?" Tiff asked.

The assertion that it was bullshit worried Ferris a bit, but he didn't say anything. "Yup!"

"Celia, truth or dare?"

"Umm… Truth."

Tiffany grinned at Celia. "I was there when you accidentally sprayed that kid in PE a few years ago, so who was the other person you've sprayed, besides your parents?"

Celia immediately blushed and looked away. "I-I don't wanna talk about it. Didn't Ferris agree there'd be no spraying stuff?"

He gave a little laugh. "Yeah, let's leave her alone on that one. Wanna try again?"

"Hell no!" Tiffany said. "All we said was no actual spraying. We didn't say anything about talking about it, right Ferris?"

He shrugged. "Not exactly. But I get the feeling that she really doesn't like talking about it. I don't wanna put her in an awkward position like that."

"That's the point of truth or dare! C'mon, Celia, you can't seriously chicken out already, can you?!" She looked to Ferris for support.

He looked at Celia, feeling bad for her being put on the spot. "Would it be _that_ bad if you told us? I won't tell anyone else."

Celia sighed, "I guess… It was just for a really stupid, embarrassing reason. I guess I was still just a kid when I did it though."

He smiled. "More embarrassing than being shouted out at a restaurant or mocked in a hallway? And if you were just a kid, that's reason enough not to be embarrassed."

"Yeah, I guess… Ok, so, this one time, in sixth grade, I think, I had a crush on a cat boy—this was before I realized that interspecies relationships are wrong. I was doodling notes about him in class one day, and afterwards, this cat girl in that same class found my notes and started making fun of me for it. I don't know, I guess I was a dumb, hormonal kid or something, but I got so upset when she kept telling me that he would never have any interest in me and that she was going to have him, since she was the only other cat in our grade. I guess I just got so upset that… before I knew it, I'd turned around and sprayed her."

"Woah, Celia," Tiffany said. "That's so unlike you now."

"Yeah! I mean, I grew up and all that, I guess. I suppose my dumb, immature brain was thinking that a cat is close enough to a skunk. I don't know." She took a long sip of her mixed drink.

Ferris frowned a bit. He didn't say anything for a few seconds. "I can understand why you'd get upset. But that was a long time ago. And it sounded like she kinda earned it." He took a gulp of his drink. "Hopefully a little got in her mouth."

Celia chuckled a bit. "That's funny, because that was actually one of the first things she said! She was like 'Ew! It got in my mouth!' But I guess that was before the worst of the smell hit her and she was too busy crying and gagging." She giggled as she tried to take a sip of her drink, "Ah, shit, I shouldn't be laughing."

Her giggle brought a smile to Ferris's face. He had been a little worried that she wasn't enjoying herself, so her laughter was a relief. "My turn? Tiff, truth or dare?"

"Hmm… Truth, but I promise next time I'll do a dare!"

He pondered it for a moment. "Have you ever failed a class before?"

She shook her head. "Nope! I'm actually pretty good in school, despite all my acting up outside of class."

"My turn now?" Celia said. "Ferris, truth or dare?"

Feeling emboldened, perhaps by the alcohol, he nodded and said, "Dare!"

Celia had to stop and think for a second. "Umm… I dare you to down the rest of your drink in ten seconds!"

He took his drink from the table. He still had most of it left. Ferris steeled himself and then brought it to his lips, gulping down the carbonated beverage. After a few seconds, it was drained. He slammed the cup back on the table and coughed, tears prickling at his eyes. "Gahh…"

"Impressive," Celia chuckled.

"Alright, my turn!" Tiffany exclaimed. "Squirrel, truth or dare?"

He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. _Maybe play it safe this time_. "Truth."

"Hmm… Have you ever had a crush on someone of a different species, like Celia apparently did?"

He had to stop himself from looking right at Celia. He wasn't even sure if he had a crush on her, and judging by her reactions when they'd been mistaken for a couple, for some reason he felt like that wasn't going anywhere, anyway. "Yeah," he answered truthfully, "at the beginning of high school, I had a crush on a horse girl I sat next to in math class. Never did anything about it though. Celia, truth or dare?"

"Ew, horses?" Tiffany scoffed.

"Tiff, don't be rude!" Celia scolded her. "And… I'll try a dare this time!"

He thought for a moment before smirking. "Try to say 'how can a clam cram in a clean cream can' five times fast!"

She took a deep breath. "How can a cram…! Fuck. How can clam cream… Fuck!"

He peeled out in a giggle at that, holding his tummy and rocking back into the couch. "Hard, isn't it?"

"It is. Think I can just take a truth instead?"

"Sure! Hmm… have you ever kissed someone?"

"…No."

"What?!" Tiffany blurted out. "Celia, seriously?!"

Ferris's eyebrows raised, but he didn't offer any exclamations of disbelief, feeling that was maybe a bit rude. He just nodded.

"There just… aren't a lot of skunk guys out there!" Celia defended herself.

"You know you don't have to stick to just skunks, right?" Tiffany offered.

"What?!"

Ferris nodded at that. "Really, there isn't anything legally keeping you from doing it. Interspecies couples are popping up everywhere. Isn't one of those crazy Hollywood couples interspecies now?"

"Yeah, Cleo and Zell! They're so cute together," Tiffany added before looking back over at the striped skunk. "Celia, look at this way: if you were gay, would you allow yourself to kiss me?"

"W-what?"

"I'm a spotted skunk and you're striped. That's technically a species divide, isn't it?"

"I guess…"

He smiled. "Yeah. And with adoption and stuff, they can even have kids, though I hear some places still make it a bit hard to get them. I think it's just now starting to become normalized."

He shrugged. "I don't see a thing wrong with it, personally. Love is love, and all that."

"Oh, you don't think there's anything wrong with it?" Celia scoffed. "Alright, then I dare you to kiss Tiffany right now!" she said even though she hadn't yet asked him truth or dare.

Tiff shrugged. "Hell, I'll do it."

Ferris blushed heavily at that, looking down at his lap in embarrassment. "I-I dunno… That kinda thing… I mean, we basically just met…"

"Sounds like Ferris isn't as pro-interspecies as he makes himself out to be," Tiffany taunted.

"Hey! That's not the same thing. I wanna kiss someone I… y'know… someone that I've gotten to know and stuff… I guess that's a bit old-fashioned of me, but still."

"Oh, so you'd kiss Celia?" She offered up her friend.

"Tiff! I'm sure he doesn't want to."

Then he made a stupid move. He didn't want to outright refuse, in case he offended her. But with that, being caught off guard, as well as the drink, he started to flounder.

"I-I mean, uh…"

He stared at her, "I wouldn't, um, mind it or anything… but you probably would feel weird about that, right?"

Celia shrugged, trying to play it off. "I mean, I guess I could change my dare to make you kiss me, if you want…"

He couldn't respond to that. But his tail did for him, puffing up and shaking. If you could see it through his red fur, his face was red hot.

"Aw, Celia look!" Tiffany exclaimed. "His tail puffed up! That means he's scared of you!"

"Sure," he said suddenly. He didn't know how he expected to follow that up. Maybe she would think it was a joke and laugh it off. He just hoped she didn't get mad.

Celia licked her lips and looked down. "Umm… Ok. Get over here, I guess." They'd all been sitting on the floor of Ferris's living room, so she crawled a bit closer to the squirrel.

He scooted closer to the skunk, biting his lower lip. He relaxed himself then laughed a little. He put a hand on her cheek tentatively, and smiled. "Ready?"

She winced a bit. "You… don't have to put your paw on my face," she said softly. "You're making this more romantic than it has to be…"

He dropped it, using it to hold himself up instead. "Sorry. It's just, it's your first one. Anyways..."

At a loss for words, he simply went for it. Leaning forward, he plants his muzzle on hers, pressing their lips together.

Celia didn't know what to expect from her first kiss, so she just went for it as well. It only lasted for a few seconds, but what she did briefly experience was incredible. She could feel his warm, soft exhale against her cheeks and it felt… wonderful. His lips were so soft.

But she had to remind herself that these kinds of feelings were wrong. She wasn't supposed to be doing this—that this wasn't the natural order of things.

After a few moments, he pulled back, keeping his eyes closed for a bit before opening them, worried about what kind of expression he might see.

When Ferris pulled away, her mind went almost blank. She had an expression that was hard to read. It was almost like she was staring off into space, perhaps a bit of insecurity in her eyes as well. She was looking just a smidge too far down to be matching his gaze.

He kind of angled his face, head cocked to the side. He could still feel her on his lips, and his heart was pounding in his chest. Sure, he had kissed before, but it had been years ago and none of them were that serious.

"Um, are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

"That was weird," Celia muttered. "I shouldn't have done that."

Ferris felt a drop in his chest. He didn't know exactly how he felt about her, but hearing that brought a frown to his face. "Y-yeah. Sorry. I guess that was pretty stupid, huh?"

She nodded. "But can we… do it again?"

Tiffany mumbled, "Celia, wow…"

He inhaled sharply at that. "Yeah!" he said with entirely too much enthusiasm. "I mean, yeah, of course we can."

Instead of carrying on like that, he closed the gap again, returning his lips to hers. He felt an electric tingle down his spine this time, since he knew what to expect and was less nervous. His hand slipped forward a bit as he kept himself steady, holding the kiss for just a few seconds longer.

Celia gently placed her paw on top of Ferris's as she leaned into the kiss as well. She could feel her tail curling up in delight as she kept pressing her lips against his.

Deciding to give the two a moment, Tiffany stood up and walked into the kitchen, a smug smirk on her lips.

He pulled back for a moment before going back in for a third, turning his hand to grip her fingers gently. His own tail was twitching back and forth, expressing what his face could not. He broke the kiss again, his muzzle still close to hers. "Your lips are soft…" he whispered breathily.

"Yours are too," she said affectionately. The fact that she'd always considered this to be so wrong only made it feel that much hotter.

"Oh, I think we scared Tiffany off," she chuckled quietly.

His hand tightened its grip slightly before pulling away. "Should we check up on her?"

"In a minute." She then leaned in closer and pulled the squirrel's head against hers again in a kiss.

He gave a gentle sound as their lips connected again, placing his free hand on her shoulder. God, she was so warm, and he could smell the scent of her shampoo. He could feel her slender shoulder in his hand. It felt so delicate. Ferris found himself unable to pull back.

Starting to really get into it, Celia leaned harder on Ferris until, eventually, he was lying on the floor on his back and she was on top of him. They were still making out through all of this, of course. Celia's hands were even starting to get curious about his body.

It had advanced far quicker than he had expected, and suddenly he was on his back, Celia over him. They kept their lips locked, breaking only momentarily to reposition their faces. His hand slid up her side, he barely even noticed until he was at the curve of her hip.

He was about to run his tongue over her lips when his phone began ringing. He broke the kiss and sighed. "That's my mom's ringtone. Hold on."

He propped himself up and pulled his cell phone out, unlocking it and putting it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Ferris. What do you think you're doing?" her voice came from the other end.

"Nothing. I just got a couple friends over from scho—"

"The two skunks? I know, I can see her throwing herself at you."

"…What?" He panickedly looked around the room.

"We had home security cameras installed before we moved in. We decided to give it a try while we're here, and what do we see when we open the app?"

He quickly extracted himself from under the skunk. "You spied on me?!"

"It's my house, Ferris. And I need those girls to leave my house—now. I'll be speaking to you tomorrow."

She hung up the line, and he let his hand drop. Ferris looked to Celia with a pained smile. "Busted."

Celia's blood went cold in terror. "W-what?" she barely choked out.

"Busted for what?" Tiffany called from the kitchen.

He slumped against the couch. "My parents. They know you guys are here and they saw me and Celia," he called, feeling a pit of anxiety building in his stomach. He ran his hand through his hair. He had never expected they would get cameras installed in his home, let alone use it to peep on him. He sighed, hanging his head.

"Oh my god…" Celia sighed, feeling her stomach tie itself in knots over how much she dreaded what was to come. She was already telling herself that her parents were going to find out, and then everyone at school, and then the whole world would be calling her a disgusting traitor to other skunks.

Celia hadn't even noticed that she'd begun crying until she felt a tear drip off her snout. She felt like she wanted to throw up and scream and sob all at the same time. Why had she given in to Ferris and Tiffany's goading? Why did she drink and then let her friends coerce her like this?

He saw her state and gripped her shoulder again. "Hey, it'll be okay! I'm so sorry, I should have figured they installed cameras. My mom was going off about break-ins for weeks before we moved. I'll try to make sure it's just me that gets in shit. It's my fault."

Her tail slowly started curling up as she grew more and more tense. "No, I'm sure she's gonna tell my parents, too. Oh my god, what've I done…" She stayed kneeling on the floor just looking down at the carpet in dread.

He stared at her for a moment. It certainly hurt him to hear her talking like what they did was wrong, but he knew she had her personal feelings about it. "Listen… I can pay for a cab for you guys. We can work out something for your car tomorrow. I'm sorry I got you into this mess. But I can convince my mom that it's not your fault or Tiffany's."

"She's still never gonna let you and me hang out again!" she told Ferris. "Not after what she just saw!"

He kind of gave her a look at that. "Sure, they can say that. But we're 18, Celia. We're not doing anything illegal, other than the drinking."

"I guess… that's true…" Celia admitted. "I… I guess Tiff and I should pack up our things while you call a taxi?"

He nodded, getting up and dialing the taxi company. While it was ringing, he tried to give her a reassuring smile. It just made him painfully aware of how, moments ago, their lips had been blissfully locked. He looked away as the operator picked up. "Hi, could I get a cab to…" he rattled off the address, pacing a little.

Celia and Tiffany stuffed their alcohol back into their bags. "Don't worry, Tiff, you can still spend the night at my house," she reassured her friend.

He hung up. "They say ten minutes or so. I'm really sorry about this. I didn't think my parents could be so psycho…"

"I mean, it makes sense after what they saw…" Celia said. "God, I still can't believe we actually did that. I'm sorry, Ferris, I don't know what got into me…"

He felt his face heat up again, looking away awkwardly. "N-no, I liked it. I mean… you don't have to apologize. I'm sorry if you felt like you had to, or something…"

"I mean, I wanted to, but also I know that I'm supposed to find it wrong…"

He gave her a weak smile, "I don't think it was. But I suppose that's up to you." 

A while later, his phone dinged in his pocket, and he looked at it. He dug a 20 dollar bill out of his pocket. "It says it's here. Use this, it's the least I can do."

"Thanks, Ferris," Celia said quietly, seemingly scared that the security cameras could hear her. "I-I'll see you Monday." She turned and headed for the front door and Tiffany followed.

He stood at the front door, watching them climb into the taxi. He gripped the door frame maybe a bit harder than he should have before backing in and closing the door.

Inside, he leaned his back up against the door, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing. He felt terrible about what they had just gone through. He pushed it to the back of his mind and went to the kitchen to clean up the mess before his parents' almost surely early return.


	5. Sunday, October 4

Sunday - Noon

  
Ferris: hey

Ferris: how ya feeling

Celia: I wish I could just take back yesterday

Celia: Can we just say that we were drunk and forget all about that?

Ferris: ya ok

Ferris: doesnt have to be a thing or anything lets just put it behind us lol

Celia: Yeah... I’m really sorry for doing that to you

Ferris: haha if anything i did it to you

Ferris: might be weird to say but it was nice for me lol i just feel bad because i know u have feelings about it

Celia: and even now that you’re sober... you don’t take issue with what we did?

Ferris: not really

Ferris: ive never felt like it was that big of a deal honestly

Ferris: like who cares who someone likes as long as theyre happy right

Celia: But being interspecies would just make everything so much more complicated, right? You saw how that old man reacted when we just LOOKED like we were dating

Ferris: ya theres troubles but lots of young ppl are accepting it more and everyone acting like that r basically dinosaurs and bigots

Ferris: i personally dont care what some old fuck in a diner thinks of me 😂

Ferris: i guess its different when it a skunk but thats just me

Celia: I just don’t know, Ferris...

Celia: Maybe we should just forget about all this

Ferris: thats ur call but i just wonder who youre thinking about that for

Ferris: u or other people

Ferris: btw convinced my folks that it was all me and they wont be talking to ur folks

Celia: Oh thank god. Thank you. Are they pissed at you?

Ferris: ya theyre furious lol

Ferris: grounded a month

Celia: Jeeezzzz

Celia: I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you

Ferris: i feel more like i shouldnt have kissed you in front of my moms creepy punk’d camera

Ferris: my dad is mad about the drinking but he didnt seem pissed about the kiss

Ferris: my mom though... her family is old fashioned, but she just kind of sucks

Celia: Maybe we should just talk about this in person tomorrow... Wanna meet up in the stairwell at lunch?

Ferris: sounds good ill see u then

Ferris: and dont beat yourself up over it u didnt do anything wrong

Celia: I kinda did, Ferris... But we can talk about that tomorrow

Ferris: okay


	6. Monday, October 5

The next day, Celia didn't even bother offering to pick up Ferris in the morning. She had no real inclination to, and she also knew his mother would be pissed if she saw the skunk stop by to pick him up.

She didn't see him throughout the day, either due to sheer coincidence or her actively avoiding him, until lunch came. With a tray of food, she sat just under a stairway near the cafeteria that wouldn't be highly trafficked around this time.

Ferris was a bit sad that he didn't get a text from her that morning as he had over the last few school days, but he understood why.

His parents were understandably cold. He didn't even bother staying for breakfast. So, by the time the lunch bell rang, he felt his empty stomach gnawing at him, but he ignored it. He was too anxious to eat anyway.

Seeing Celia on the stairway, he went down a couple steps to her and sat down, seating himself one stair up from her to give her a little distance. "Hey, Celia," he said quietly, not sure what he should say to follow that up.

"Hey…" she muttered. "So… you still don't feel weird or bad after what we, y'know, did?" She didn't bother making eye contact with him, too embarrassed and ashamed.

"Well," he started, folding his hands together, "not until I realized how upset it made you. But when it was happening, no. I'm more feeling bad about making you do something you're clearly uncomfortable with."

"…Can I tell you something?" Celia whispered. "I'm not actually uncomfortable with it. I just feel like I _should_ be uncomfortable with it. And the fact that I'm not scares me a little…"

His heart jumped at that. Ferris didn't exactly understand the mess of feelings he was experiencing, but knowing that she wasn't actually uncomfortable with it instantly made him feel much better. He kept attentive to her. "Why does it scare you? Were you raised to be against that stuff?"

"Of course. Wasn't everybody? You told me yourself that your parents were upset about this kind of thing."

He shook his head. "My _mom_ is upset. My dad doesn't seem to really care. I don't think he ever agreed with my mom on this stuff. When I told him about my crush on that horse girl, he told me not everyone would understand, but when it came down to it, he would support me no matter what."

"So… if I were to—hypothetically!—ask you to date me right now… what would you say, Ferris?" the skunk asked, finally looking into his eyes for the first time today.

Ferris felt his breath catch in his throat. He was very thrown off by the sudden question, but he was able to keep cool and just give a simple answer. "Yes."

Hesitant, Celia started to lean in a bit closer to Ferris on the steps. Even she didn't know yet what she was going to do.

He shuffled forward on the step, leaning close to her as well. His hand moved to her shoulder, just like when they kissed the other day. He felt himself moving closer to her face before stopping himself just a few inches from her face. His amber eyes met hers and he gave her a smile. "Hypothetically, what would you say if I asked you out on a date?"

"I… What would I tell my parents?" Her tail curled up in stress just as it had when she'd been caught on the security cameras. She started breathing a little more heavily, too.

His hand tightened on her shoulder, squeezing it supportively. "Well… we can take our time figuring that out. If you want."

"…Would you be ok with that? Taking our time?"

His hand slid down her arm from her shoulder, taking her paw in his and squeezing. "All the time we need. No pressure."

"Thank you…" she said softly before suddenly grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him closer to her. She pressed her lips against Ferris's in a deep, passionate kiss.

He gasped as she pulled him in. His arms went around her as he kissed her back with just as much passion. He ended up falling back a bit against the steps and pulling her on top of him. He rubbed her back gently as they held the kiss, only breaking it to give her a wide, goofy grin.

She looked into the squirrel's eyes as she pulled back from the kiss as well, licking her lips. Then, apparently still hungry for more, she leaned in and again kissed him.

His fingers buried themselves in her long hair. Ferris pulled her head to his and moaned gently against her lips. He couldn't even bring himself to pull away, the warmth of her body mingling with his. He could smell her soap on her fur, making their proximity almost intoxicating.

Celia pulled away for a second and moaned, "This is so wrong…" Just a second later, however, she went back to kissing.

Her words almost hurt him, but he was too enraptured to care, instead happily accepting her affection. He even daringly ran his tongue over her lips, but didn't dare go any further. His tail was twitching wildly under him, unable to contain his excitement. That was, until he heard heavy footfalls.

He pulled her off of him and sat up, clearing his throat, right as the same bull from the other day turned the corner and spotted them on the stairs. There was just enough distance between each other to have plausible deniability. He analyzed them as he stepped past them, but said nothing as he climbed to the top and kept on his way.

Once the door shut behind him, Celia turned to Ferris and whispered, "That was too close…" She picked up her tray of food. "Maybe we should just eat lunch."

He nodded, face flushed and a bit breathless, before realizing he didn't even bring food. "You go ahead. Let's talk a bit after school."

"But even after school ends, we can't talk for long," she said, "or else your parents will notice that it took you awhile to get home and you'll get in more trouble."

He sighed. "Yeah. You're right. But…" he smiled at her again, "I think in the end, it's all been worth it. Even the grounding."

She chuckled and shook her head. "I can't believe you're saying that… To go through all this just for some dumb skunk…"

He nudged her leg gently with his knee. "Not just any old dumb skunk. This one is something special."

She looked at him with a soft smile before leaning over and resting her head on the squirrel's shoulder.

He gave her a smile back, rubbing her back comfortingly before pulling his arm back and avoiding the gaze of another passing student.

He quickly pecked her on her head, her lovely shampooed strands tickling his nose, before the sudden bell caused him to jump a bit and squeak. The loudspeaker was directly above them.

She laughed and elbowed him as she sat up. "A bit jumpy, are we?"

He got up with her, laughing his nerves off. "Gimme a break! I was a bundle of nerves all morning! I was a little worried you'd never want to see me again."

"Oh, don't be silly," she giggled despite knowing that she had pondered doing that exact thing the previous night. She was starting to convince herself that she'd be better off if she just didn't associate with Ferris ever again, but now that she saw his face, she knew she couldn't possibly do that.

"I guess I'll… text you after school?" she suggested, not knowing when else they could next see each other.

He beamed at that, nodding. "Sounds good! I hope the rest of your day goes well! I'll talk to you later."

He thought about going in for the hug, but decided against it as kids began filling the hall, heading to their afternoon classes. Instead he waved to her before vanishing into the swelling crowd.

On his way to PE, he pulled his phone out. He selected Celia's contact in his phone, and added a character to her name.

"Celia ❤"

He grinned like an idiot to himself and crammed his phone into his pocket, trying to keep himself from running in excitement towards his next class.

  
———

  
Celia got home a little sooner than she'd gotten back the previous week when she had to take Ferris home almost every day after school.

A little cheerier than she'd been when she left that morning, she sat down on the living room couch and pulled out some notebooks she'd need to do homework.

Someone emerged from the kitchen. It was her father, holding a mug in his hand. "Coffee, love?" he asked his daughter.

"Don't you be hooking our daughter on coffee!" her mother could be heard from the kitchen. "She'll end up just like you in the morning: unbearable until you have your cup."

He made a joking gesture to Celia, a kind of "can you believe this?" look.

Celia looked at her mother for a second, then called loudly enough for her mom to hear, "A coffee would be great, thanks Dad."

She smirked. "I mean, Mom, you gotta admit: It's better than falling asleep in the daytime like we normally would."

Her dad laughed a little from the kitchen as he brewed her a fresh cup of coffee. He then sat down in the chair next to the couch, and soon after her mother sat down next to her daughter.

"Say," her father asked, "why did you and Tiffany stay here Saturday night? I thought you were going to have a sleepover at hers."

Luckily for her, Celia had an excuse she'd kept stored in her mind since the ride home on Saturday. "Her parents aren't cool with drinking, but she thought they'd be out all night. As it turned out, they came home early, so we had to find somewhere else to drink." _Smooth as butter_ , she thought.

"You know," Celia's mom said, "you probably shouldn't be drinking with her if her parents aren't ok with it. And you definitely shouldn't have brought her here for it. Now if her parents find out that she drank here, it's gonna look like we were endorsing it!"

"It's fine, Mom," the girl insisted. "Her parents aren't gonna find out. She drinks all the time and they've never caught her."

"Still," Mom said, "if you two come here to sneakily drink again, you're grounded."

"Yes, ma'am…" Celia grumbled.

Her father nodded. "I know you kids want to have your fun, but we shouldn't be violating other people's boundaries. You and Tiffany are close enough to college that you can stand to wait a bit longer for stuff like that. You have to understand that we're pretty accepting parents, but lots of people might see our toleration as negligence."

"Right…" Celia said, trying to seem to her parents like she was focusing on her homework now. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again."

Her father nodded again. "Thank you for understanding, sweetie." He got up from the chair and leaned over the back of the couch, kissing her head. "Right. I'm going to get started on dinner."

He left the room, probably happy that his daughter didn't become combative or defensive. Her mother switched on the television and settled in next to Celia.


	7. Friday, October 9

The two had gotten along quite well that week, eating lunch in private almost every day—although it could hardly be said they ate lunch when, for the most part, all they did was talk and make out.

That Friday, Celia waited just inside the school's front entrance for Ferris to grab everything he needed. It was by now much too cold to comfortably wait outside, but thankfully for her the mean looks from passing students in response to the spraying last week had mostly subsided.

Ferris and Celia had plans after school to head to the nearby mall to do a little shopping and watch a movie. They would have to walk there, because they knew Ferris's mom would freak out if she saw the skunk girl driving him home again.

Ferris came up to the door. He was breathing heavy, like he had just been sprinting and slowed before he had gotten there. He came to a stop right in front of her. "Hey! I hope you weren't waiting long!" He had the urge to lean in and kiss her immediately, but he knew it was a terrible idea to do that right at the school entrance on a Friday afternoon, so he reined himself in.

"God!" Celia chuckled as the red squirrel came running up to her. "You don't need to haul ass for me!"

He chuckled. "You good to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." She hiked her backpack up a bit. "What'd your mom say when you said you were going to the mall with 'a friend'?"

He shrugged. "She kept it short, just nodded. She's still pretty pissed at me. Dad gave me a little pocket money, though. Neither of them asked if it was you, and I honestly didn't wanna tell them right now."

Smiling, he held the door open for her. "Let's get walking so we can warm up a bit."

"Good point," she said and tightened her scarf around her neck before heading out into the cold.

Once they were a fair distance from the school and the other kids there, Celia said, "This still feels so weird… I mean, don't get me wrong, I like you! It's just… I never saw myself as the type to jump the species barrier."

Ferris looked at her, a smile coming to his face when she said she likes him. After doing a quick glance around, he picked up her hand and squeezed it tight, then let it drop slowly from her hand, their fingers slowly rubbing together.

"Well, romance can do funny things to a person. I never thought I'd get into one at this age, that's for sure." He grinned wide. "And for the record, I like you too."

Celia briefly looked over Ferris with a sweet smile before turning her attention to the sidewalk in front of her.

Finally, they reached the local mall. With an inpatient shiver, Celia shed the hood of her fluffy winter jacket once they entered the warm air. "So, where were we going first?" she asked the squirrel.

Immediately, Ferris marvelled at the size of the building. He craned his neck up to look at the multiple floors and the zigzagging escalators. The shopping center seemed to stretch on forever, compared to the rundown strip mall in his hometown.

"Umm… I need some new pants," he said, "and then I wanted to go to the bookstore. Should we get the clothes first?"

"Very romantic," Celia said, rolling her eyes, "but I guess we are trying not to look terribly obvious. Pants first sounds fine."

He gave her a smile. "I'm just saying what I came here to get! We could check out some jewelry or something while we're here. You'll have to lead the way, though. I'm liable to get lost immediately."

"Oh, because I'm a girl, I must like jewelry?" the skunk said, her expression immediately changing to look unenthused, if not bored.

He rolled his eyes this time. "Well, you're not exactly forthcoming with this stuff, y'know. What would you prefer?"

"Dammit," she chuckled. "I was hoping you'd get flustered when you thought I'd taken offense to that." She looked away. "You're cute when you're flustered."

At that, he probably became much more flustered than he would have earlier. 'Cute' was not a word that he had heard used to describe him often. "H-hey! You can't just say that!" he grumbled, happy that his red fur would mostly hide his blushing cheeks.

"There it is!" she purred. She'd hug him but had to stop herself and remember that she was in public. "There's the flustered squirrel."

He stammered. _Dammit_. She totally got him. He shifted a bit, changing the subject quickly. "I-if you were gonna get a gift, where would you get it from?"

"That's a random question," she laughed as they kept on walking. "I guess it depends on who it's for and what I'd wanna get them. Why?"

"Well… I just started seeing this girl. She's a beautiful skunk, but she implies to me that she's not fond of jewelry. I'd like to get her something nice, maybe a piece of clothing or something else she could wear."

"Ew, a skunk?" She playfully wrinkled her nose at Ferris. "Sounds like you can do better."

He chuckled and bumped his shoulder into hers, something that was more likely to be seen by strangers as a friendly gesture rather than a romantic one. "Funny, I find myself thinking the same about her. She's pretty dang special."

She smirked. "Well, I guess if you had to get me something, it'd probably be smart to go with video games or something, I dunno." Celia shrugged, "I never know what will look good on me until I try it on, so it's always hard to tell if a gift of clothing will look good on me. Black and white stripes don't go with just anything, you know."

He grinned back at her. "Well, tell you what: you help me pick out pants, and then we can go hit the game store or something and see if we can't find something for you. Sound good?"

She smiled. "It's not my birthday or anything, Ferris! You don't need to get me anything."

"I know! I just wanna get you something nice! You've done so much for me—more than just making out and stuff—and I feel like I really haven't properly thanked you yet!"

"Oh c'mon, what've I done for you that you haven't done for me too?" Celia asked.

He grinned, resisting the strong urge to take her hand in his and squeeze it. "You were a friend to me when I was all alone. It means more to me than I can really say with words. And besides, do I need a reason to buy you a gift? I mean, you are my—" He stopped for a moment as a well-dressed alligator walked past them. "My girlfriend," he finished quietly.

"And you're my boyfriend," she whispered back, "as weird as that is to say to a squirrel. Sorry, heh, guess I still need a little time to get used to all this."

Ferris chuckled at that. He knew it would take a while for her to get used to it. Of course, it was strange for him as well, but his happiness far outweighed any kind of discomfort. He was more than happy to wait for her to acclimate.

They walked into the generic clothing store and towards the men's section for Ferris. Picking the pants out was simple enough. He knew his size, so he simply picked up a few pants in styles that he liked. "We doing the whole shopping montage thing? 'Cause if not I'm fine just picking these up and moving on?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," she laughed at his characterization of it as a "montage". "Did you wanna take me somewhere first before we go to the movie?"

He chewed his lip for a moment. "We have a little time to kill, so sure! A kid in my bio class said that there's an arcade here! That sound good?"

"Sounds good!" she said despite expecting Ferris to take her somewhere that he could buy her a gift. "I think I know where it is, so you can follow me."

He nodded. He had plans for a gift, but also knew this wasn't the right time to go and get it. He had plenty of money saved from his old job stocking shelves at his dad's store, so he was sure he had enough for what he had in mind. He let her lead him to the arcade, walking as close to the skunk as he could without seeming weird to others. "God, this place is huge! This is probably the biggest mall I've ever been in."

"Is it?" she said. "This is probably an average-size mall. You should see some of the bigger ones out there."

A moment later, they were standing before a huge, darkened room with the word "ARCADE" in bright letters hanging over the entrance. Inside were dozens of cabinets with flashing lights and only a few other teenagers playing some.

Ferris grinned wide upon seeing the sizable arcade. He looked around at the cabinets, his senses assaulted by blinking lights and sounds. He turned to her, still smiling dumbly like an eager kid. "Which one's your favourite?"

Celia shrugged. "I don't know. It's been forever since I touched an actual arcade cabinet. I was just hoping I'd watch you play, to be honest."

He puffed his cheeks out a bit. "Sounds a bit boring, doesn't it? Just watching me play a game? We could find something to play together. Or…" he looked around, spotting the machine he was looking for, "I could try winning you something out of that."

He pointed to the opposite wall, where a glass cabinet filled with stuffed characters and other little plush toys. A big chrome claw hanging from the middle of the top part.

She laughed. "Well, if you are dead set on getting me a gift, maybe a claw machine is the best way to do it." She walked in the direction of the claw game.

He walked with her, peeking through the glass. It was mostly filled with cartoon or video game mascots, but there were some generic stuffed animals. "Which one do you like? I haven't played one of these in a while, so I'm not sure how many tries I'll need."

"Hm…" She practically pressed her nose against the glass to look in. "Oh my God. Is that a cartoon skunk?!" she asked, pointing to a particular plush. "Oh my gosh, I want that one! But I won't let you waste more than a dollar on this dumb machine, so that's just four tries."

He grinned at her reaction. "Only four tries? Well, I think I have a chance. Maybe."

He walked to the front of the machine and shoved a quarter in. The first attempt was an absolute failure. On the second, he was able to pull it from its half-buried spot. The third one looked promising, securing it and even moving it halfway to the slot, before bouncing off the edge and getting flung back to the opposite side. "Aw, shit." he grumbled. He finally slipped in the fourth and final quarter, knowing it was his last shot. He carefully maneuvered the claw over to the stuff skunk. Biting his lip, he watched it drop down and pick up the skunk plush right around the center of its mass. It wobbled as it made its way to the drop, even slipping a bit from the claw's grip some.

Ferris held his breath, only releasing it when the plush knocked against the flap on the outside of the claw machine. "Fourth time's the charm, eh?"

"Damn!" she exclaimed, bending down and pulling the plush from the receptacle at the bottom. "You're a champ, huh?"

She stood up and held out the miniature skunk to Ferris. "Look at 'em!!" she exclaimed. "Oh my gosh, what do we name him-slash-her?"

He grinned, booping the little skunk on the nose. "Hmm… How about Pipi? Like the one from the cartoon? Hm, nah, that's dumb…" He put his finger on his chin, tapping it lightly.

"I'm gonna call it… Fairy. Get it, because it sounds like Ferris? Or, is that emasculating or something to you?"

Ferris gave a little snort. "Naw, not at all! If anything, it's flattering. Fairy sounds like a terrific name!"

She smiled and hugged the stuffed skunk against her chest. "He's so precious! Um, what time was the movie again?"

He checked his phone. "Um, about half an hour. Wanna go there now? Or we can probably check out one more store if there was anything else you wanted to look at."

She shrugged. "I don't have anything else I wanna buy. Do you?"

He chewed his lip for a moment. He wanted to take her somewhere she liked so he could buy her a real gift, but he didn't know how to angle it or ask her what kind of stuff she would like. He wanted it to be more spontaneous. He figured they could always come back and do that another time. "Nah. If we walk past anything you wanna check out I'm cool, but after the movie I do still need to stop by the bookstore. Let's go get some decent seats for the movie. Sound good?"

"Sounds good!" she said, turning around and walking toward the arcade exit. Celia approached a map posted just outside the arcade. "Looks like theater is… this way." She turned to the right and started walking again.

Without consciously realizing she was doing it, she held her paw out to Ferris at waist-height. Her fingers were spread as if she was expecting him to interlock his fingers with hers.

He noticed, and took her hand without thinking. He squeezed her hand in his gently, walking closely while holding her hand. It wasn't until he noticed a mouse woman glance in their direction with a raised brow before going on her way that he realized what was up. He let his hand fall from hers. "As much as I'd love to hold your hand, maybe we should wait until we get to the theater, huh?"

"Huh? Oh!" She jammed her hand into her pocket. "Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't even realize…" She kept on walking with Ferris, her head down a little in shame.

"For what it's worth," he said, walking beside her, "it's taking everything I have to not grab your hand right now. It's so soft and warm, and it's really comforting. Especially when we lock our fingers together. It sends a little shiver up my spine every time."

She giggled, enchanted by the fact that she could make another person feel that way. "I'm glad you feel that way, Ferris," Celia said. "I really like holding your hand, too."

He grinned, leaning in and giving her a sly look. "When we get our seats, I'm gonna hold your hand so hard, baby." he joked, waggling his brows playfully.

She laughed and shook her head. "You're an idiot, you know that?" Celia chuckled. "But yeah, that sounds great." They reached the storefront of the movie theater.

He quickly bought the tickets. It was just some dumb romcom, but he wasn't exactly worried about focusing on the movie. He would have watched almost anything if it meant having just a little time close to her.

They walked in, and he pointed to the concession stand. "Want anything?" he offered to her.

"Umm… Maybe a popcorn and a soda? I can pay of course," the skunk said. She had stuffed the plush Fairy into her purse, and now just its head was poking out of it.

Ferris followed her to the line, chatting with her as she ordered and paid for the snacks. Afterwards, he looked at the number on their tickets and looked around, trying to find their theater. It was one of the furthest ones from the entrance. When they made it, they still had about ten minutes before the movie started.

The movie had come out a month before and it was an early Friday afternoon, so there were only three other people in the theater: one couple (two felines) in the middle rows and another person near the front who was too far away to discern anything about them. Ferris led Celia to a row a towards the back, giving them plenty of room between themselves and the other couple. "Is here good?"

"Yeah, this looks good," Celia said softly as she settled into her seat. Almost immediately, she held out her hand for Ferris to hold.

Smiling, he quickly took her hand in his. His fingers nestled between hers and gave a little squeeze. He took a quick look around and, seeing no witnesses, pulled her hand to his face and kissed the back of her paw. His thumb rubbed over hers gently.

Perhaps pushing her luck, Celia leaned over and rested her head on the squirrel's shoulders just as another movie preview began.

Smiling, Ferris then rested his cheek on her head. He could smell her shampoo. Her hair was so damn soft. He knew they were pulling a risky move, but, in the dark, maybe they would be mistaken for two squirrels. Maybe even two skunks. He kissed her head lightly, watching the images flash across the screen. He hoped the movie would never end, that it would just keep going and that he could stay there as long as he could. Part of him knew that wasn't possible, but for the moment, he couldn't hear it.

Celia lifted her chin up and kissed Ferris's cheek. She didn't mean to, but in the process she made a somewhat audible smooching sound.

The man of indeterminate species heard her lips' noise and looked over his shoulder at them. He issued them a stern look before returning to watching the film.

Ferris didn't even notice the guy. He turned to Celia and leaned in close, planting a kiss on her lips. It was chaste, nothing like their lunchtime makeout sessions, but he had longed to feel her lips on his again. He kept it at that for now, resting both of their hands on the armrest between them.

That wasn't quite enough for the skunk. Celia turned in her seat to properly face Ferris before laying her hands on his body and pulling him closer into the kiss.

His body arched naturally into her touch, his own hand sliding to her stomach and the curve of her waist. He made a small kissing noise against her lips, but it was nearly imperceptible to the surrounding people.

Celia gently lifted her tail up and curled it around her body, laying the massive, fluffy thing between the two for Ferris to enjoy.

His fingers buried themselves in the fur of her tail, combing through it softly as he kept their lips locked. His tongue ran playfully across her mouth, and he pressed himself a little closer to her. By now his heart was beating fast in his chest.

Celia felt her way down his back until she was just above the base of his tail. Feeling her hands on his lower back, his slender frame arched further. He slowly pushed his tongue into her mouth, gently probing it. His fingers gently gripped a handful of her fur, though not enough for it to hurt. A low murring sound came from his throat, something he usually didn't do unless he was very, very happy or excited.

"Hey, inter-freaks!" the man in front of them turned around and hissed at them. "Think you could keep it down? I'm trying to watch a movie." As the two teens could see now, he was a rodent of some kind, or perhaps a weasel.

Ferris removed his tongue from her mouth, pulling back and almost slinking down in his chair. He was clearly embarrassed. The other couple in the theatre clearly didn't care; they were busy making out themselves.

He looked at Celia and grinned sheepishly. "Oops," he whispered.

"Sorry, that was probably my fault," she whispered back. "Let's just… watch the movie."

He grinned and leaned in closer. He whispered softly into her ear, his breath hot. "Don't be sorry. I loved it." He sat back in his chair, giving her a cheeky grin before taking a sip of her soda for himself.

Embarrassed and a little ashamed, Celia settled back into her seat and went back to simply holding Ferris's hand as they watched the movie.

The rest of the movie passed by without incident. Nothing more happened between them except for stolen glances and gentle hand rubs. All too soon though, the film ended. The man in the front stepped out quickly, and the other couple were untangling from each other and getting ready to go.

"Shall we get going?" Ferris asked her.

She nodded. With a yawn and a stretch high above her head, she stood up from the comfy theater seat and looked to Ferris. "I think we pissed that guy off," Celia chuckled.

He giggled as well. "Yeah, I guess so. At least he didn't make a scene though. Is that progress?"

She chuckled, "Yeah, I guess it is… Though he did call us 'inter-freaks'. That's the derogatory name for people who are interspecies dating, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah. But that other couple didn't seem to care at all. So I guess as far as informal polling goes, he's in the minority here. Besides, he came in to watch a romcom by himself. I'm not too worried about what he thinks of me."

She laughed. "That is a good point… Kinda weird, if you think about it. So, um, did you say you wanted to hit another store before going home?"

"Yeah! I needed to pick up some new notebooks, and a new book by someone I like which just came out, so I wanted to see if I could buy that, too. You don't have to come if that sounds boring, though."

"Nah, that's fine," the skunk said. "Off to the bookstore we go!"

He let her lead him to the bookstore, realizing on the way there that it was nearly on the other side of the mall. They spoke of silly, inconsequential things, before they finally arrived.

The squirrel's eyes lit up as he saw the rows and rows of books lining the walls. "Holy crap. Even the bookstores are big here."

Celia rolled her eyes. "Small town squirrel amazed by everything he sees here," the skunk said. "Next you're gonna be telling me our toilets are bigger, too."

He stuck his tongue out at her. "Hush, you. The only big thing we had out there were trucks. Now, are you gonna help me find some notebooks, or are ya gonna stand there and sass me?"

He walked inside, looking around the aisles before he was immediately sidetracked by an interesting-looking (to him) biography.

"I don't see why I can't do both..." Celia said before wandering away from Ferris to look for notebooks while he got distracted by something on an entirely different shelf.

The squirrel leafed through the book quickly, deciding it was not as interesting as he first thought. He put it down and joined her, looking over her shoulder. "What's that?"

"Uh… notebooks?" Celia said. "That's what we came here for, right?"

He laughed. "Right. Stupid. Sorry, I get really distracted in bookstores. This one is a bit too"—he looked around—"bougie, I guess? I like older book stores. But these places are good for notebooks and stuff."

She rolled her eyes at his silly terminology. "Ya want a large variety of books at a cheap price? You go to a bigger bookstore. Or shop online. That's not bougie, that's just smarter," she chuckled.

He laughed too. "It's not just about prices. Everything here is alphabetized, all set up nice and clean. They probably sweep four times a day. Sure, it might be easier to find what you're looking for, but that's no fun. I think it's more fun to search things out. Some of the best books I ever read came from a pile stacked on the floor by a shelf. It's not just about prices, though. Here you can get three books for forty bucks, but you can walk away from another place with four books for ten bucks."

He shrugged. "Doesn't really matter though. Like I said, I'm basically just here for those notebooks. And maybe one book."

She looked at him a little funny. "You're one weird squirrel… Do you not prefer to just go to a store, grab what you need, and get out?"

"Depends on the store! Clothes? Absolutely. Grocery store? Yes. Bookstore? Not so much. I like bookstores like that much more. I like being able to spend hours going through books. I dunno. I guess that's kinda weird, but it's just how I feel."

"Eh, I guess you and I have very different relationships with books… in that I don't really read them at all," she added with a laugh. "Alright, we got your notebook. What else was it you wanted?"

He chuckled, nodding. "Yeah. I'll go take a look and see if they have it. It's just a dumb travel journalism book."

He took a stroll down a few aisles before stopping, spotting it quite quickly. He scooped it off the shelf and tucked it under his arm with the notebook.

"And yeah, I'm kind of a freak about books. When you live in the middle of nowhere, especially without a license, you end up reading a lot, or at least I did. And that was every gift from mom. Books for everything. Christmas and birthdays."

"Did you… not have the Internet out there?" Celia asked semi-seriously. "I mean, books are cool and all, but… Eh, nevermind. You do what makes you happy."

He shrugged at that. "I dunno. The internet is cool and all, and we had it, but we only had one computer and my mom mostly used it for work. I have my own laptop now so I can surf the Internet, but I usually only really use it to keep in touch with people and look stuff up. It's not really great for games or anything."

"Fair enough," she said. "I'm surprised though you're not more into that squirrel-owned business, Nutflix. I usually find myself on there way more often than reading a book."

"Yeah, we get together as a family to watch it. My parents are totally 'wait until I'm there for the next episode' people. I watch stuff on my own sometimes, but there's something special about books for me. I'm not really sure what it is."

They walked in silence for a bit before he brought it up. "Are you, uh, gonna go to college?"

"I mean, of course I am," she said like it should be obvious. "We have college counselors and stuff in our school for a reason. Aren't you?"

He nodded. "I am! I wanna go and learn journalism. But I'm not sure if I wanna do that right away. I kind of want to travel a bit, y'know?"

She nodded. "Maybe… Maybe you and I could do something this summer," she suggested. "I dunno, travel around Europe, see the world? Could be fun!"

He blushed under his red fur at that. "Wow… Actually, that sounds… really nice. Y'know, they're super accepting of interspecies couples in places like England and France. It would be nice… y'know. Go on some dates without worrying."

"I hear there's some places, like farms, where they even let travellers work a little bit in exchange for food and somewhere to sleep. We could totally do that and see Europe basically for free!"

"Wait." He stopped walking, turning to face her. "Are we… actually talking about this? It's kind of my dream to travel through Europe and, um… It would make me really happy if you wanted to come."

"Yeah I'm being serious!" she exclaimed. "I mean, summer is still so far away, and so much could happen between now and then, but that sounds like something really fun to do!"

His face turned into a giant grin. "You know, if we were alone right now… I'd hug you and pick you up and twirl you around." He gave a wink. "And, if you do travel with me, I'll do just that—in the middle of London, where nobody will look at us weird or tell us we're wrong."

She had to bite her lip just from grinning like a complete idiot. "God, it sucks not getting to hug you or anything right now…" she said, clearly having to restrain herself.

He nodded. "Let's get out of here. Maybe we can find somewhere secluded and get that urge out of you before we head home?"

She bit her lip for an entirely separate reason now. "I… I think I'd like that," she said a little sensually.

Finally they were next in line to check out. They stepped up to the counter and Ferris quickly paid for his books. Leading her out of the store, he quickly found the nearest exit. As they pushed the door open and stepped out, they found themselves in the back parking lot. There were fewer cars out here, and little alcoves around the wall where they could get a little privacy. He took Celia by the hand and led her to one. Leaning against the wall inside the alcove, he used her hand to pull her closer to himself, his arm wrapping around her waist and holding her close. He grinned to her, licking his lips without realizing it.

She chuckled as she was held tightly by the waist. She placed her own hands on his shoulders and lightly interconnected them by the fingers behind his neck as she looked up into his eyes.

He looked back for a silent moment before ducking his head in, planting his lips on hers. He had obviously been restraining himself just as much as her, obviously eager to feel her lips once more after being so rudely interrupted in the theater.

Celia didn't hesitate before passionately kissing Ferris back. Her hands pushed tighter against the back of his neck to pull him in closer against her face.

Ferris moaned gently against her lips. He again slipped his tongue into her mouth, his hand pressing against the small of her back and pushing their bodies flush together.

She disconnected her hands for a moment so she could reconnect them again, this time behind his back. Her two paws were slowly sliding from Ferris's shoulder blades down to his waist.

Ferris's body trembled slightly in her hands. He was obviously still getting used to the sensation. His hands slowly moved down as well, rubbing at the base of her tail as their kisses grew deeper and more passionate.

"Careful," she muttered as she secured her own grip on his tail. "Don't yank my tail or go between my ass cheeks."

He gave a squeak as his tail was gripped, leaning back against the wall harder. He nodded and kept rubbing her. "G-gotcha… I won't do anything like that," he panted before closing the gap between them and kissing her again.

"Good squirrel," she said in a sultry voice just before her lips touched Ferris's again. She ran her fingers along the length of his fluffy tail. This didn't necessarily do anything for her sexually, but she did love how soft it was.

Ferris had a very sensitive tail. The sensation for him too wasn't necessarily sexual, but it did tend to relax him when it was touched. Her words were what made him have to pull his crotch back from her to avoid poking her in the stomach. His hand slid from her tail down to her ass, gently groping one of her cheeks, ready pull away if she objected.

"Ferris, careful," she warned him again. "You really should probably not be rough with my ass in… any way. I just don't think it's be worth the risk." She said this despite knowing that she had a rather impressive rear—not that many ever got to see it anyway.

He nodded, sliding his hand back to her hip. He had planned to back off if she said anything, but he had figured if he were gentle it would be ok. Still, he definitely didn't want to question her, especially where spraying was concerned. But her ass had certainly felt good in his hand. "Sorry," he whispered into her lips, kissing her once, then twice.

Celia giggled quietly. "So I guess we're not doing your driving lesson today, hm?"

"Well, you're certainly driving me crazy at the moment, so maybe it would be good to cool off a bit…" He didn't gesture to his groin, but he figured the implication was enough. "It's getting a little late, though. Will your folks be ok?"

"Yeah, I told them I was heading out with a friend. They didn't ask any questions about who, fortunately. How about yours?" She leaned away from Ferris some.

"My folks know I'm at the mall with a friend. I just left out the 'girl' part at the beginning. Mom is still being pretty frigid with me—I think she wants me to just stay home like a good boy. But dad was cool about it. I'm not exactly anxious to get back home."

"Well, I guess it's just up to us then: do I teach you to drive, keep making out, or maybe even … go a little further?"

He blushed brightly at that. "F-further, you say…?"

"No, I'm sorry, that was dumb..." she said, looking away. "I'm sure you don't wanna do _that_ so soon…"

He placed a hand on her cheek, rubbing it softly with his thumb. "N-no… I mean, no, I don't mind at all. But… maybe we should move somewhere a little less, uh… back-parking-lot-of-a-mall-y?"

She bit her lip, then looked at him and firmly said, "No, we can't do this." She looked at him in silence for a couple before losing her resolve and looking away. "This is the first time for the both of us. It should be somewhere special."

He nodded. He took her shoulders in his hand and pulled her in, hugging her tight. "Yeah. You're right. I want to do it right. You deserve better. We both do. I'm happy to wait until we can."

"I think my parents are planning a trip sometime this fall. Maybe then…?" She reached down to his waist and gently felt his erection.

It was standing strong and firm under his jeans, and she could feel the heat of it through the denim. His body jumped a little when she touched it. His hand slid down her shoulder to cup her breast, murring into her ear. "Mmm, sounds like a date, love."

"Fuck…" she muttered breathily as he felt her tit. "Alright, let's get out of here already—before we both get too turned on."

He chuckled deep in his throat, licking along the edge of her ear before pulling himself back, grinning at her. "Ok. Just give me a second to, uh… calm down."

He looked down at his very noticeable bulge. His jeans were not skinny, but they were still tight enough that one could clearly make out the outline of his boner.

She laughed. "Alright, how can I turn you off… Oh! You're cute, you're adorable, you're precious!" she said, trying to make him flustered again.

He blushed wildly at the sudden assault of belittling compliments, pushing her to arm's length. He started laughing at it, clearly too amused by her antics to be focusing much on his now shrinking erection. "You friggin' jerk!" he giggled.

"I'm complimenting you!" she defended herself, laughing along with Ferris.

He grabbed her head and kissed her twice before finally untangling himself from her, his laughs quieting. He bent down to pick up the bag of his books, holding them at his side. "Shall we?"

"Nice and soft again?"

He stuck his tongue out at her, then nodded. "Yup. All thanks to you," he joked. "You're, like, really good at kissing, you know that?"

"Well, thank you," she said. "Guess it must come naturally, since you're the first boy I've kissed. But on the other hand, we have been doing it all week, so I guess I oughta be good at it by now."

He chuckled. "So, what's the plan now? Wanna do a lesson, or save it for another day?"

"Eh, by the time we walk to the school parking lot, I don't think we'll have much more time to drive home before our parents get suspicious. Why don't you just head home now and I'll keep going to school to grab my car?"

"Yeah, sounds good, babe." He leaned in and gave her a big hug. "I'll talk to you later, ok?"

"Yeah," she said. "Text me for sure, and I'll see you on Monday." She gave one last, tight squeeze before releasing the squirrel.

He waved goodbye to her, taking a few steps backwards before turning around and heading off on his way, tail swishing back and forth happily.

Celia chuckled to herself about how happy he seemed, judging by his tail. She headed to the school parking lot, got in her car, and drove home.

  
———

  
Ferris: hey!!

Ferris: thanks for taking me out, i had so much fun

Ferris: how does fairy like his new home lol

Celia: He loves it!  
Attachment: 1 image

The picture attached to her message was the skunk girl in bed and hugging the miniature plush skunk Ferris had won for her earlier that day.

Ferris: awwww so cute

Ferris: stuffy looks cute too lol

Ferris: looks comfy but isnt it a bit early for bedtime?

Celia: Well I’m not going to bed just yet, this is just where I do my homework and stuff

Celia: Where in your house do you go to chill?

Ferris: oh ya that makes sense

Ferris: in my room but mostly at my desk  
Attachment: 1 image

The picture was of Ferris, spinned around in his chair and taking a selfie with his tongue sticking out, his computer monitor behind him.

She hit the heart reaction on the picture Ferris sent before starting to type back.

Celia: You’re such a cute dork hahaha

Ferris: hey! i resemble that statement!

Ferris: have u talked to tiffany lately? i havent really seen her since we started going out

Celia: Yeah I have a class with her so we’ve talked some. She’s good, hasn’t sprayed anyone all week so I’m real proud of her hahahaha

Ferris: good to hear!

Ferris: lol

Ferris: is it stupid that i miss you already 😂

Celia: Well I am pretty irresistible, so I guess I can’t blame you

Celia: Jk

Celia: Maybe I should’ve let you keep Fairy so you still have a skunk to cuddle lol

Ferris: i’d tell you youre wrong but you really arent lol

Ferris: sry i touched your butt a lot earlier

Ferris: in my defense it’s a really nice butt

Celia: 🙄

Celia: I really didn’t wanna chase you away from there, but I know I’d just feel so awful if I sprayed you

Ferris: lol no worries i get it haha

Ferris: which do u think would be better to go to first, paris or london, if u had to pick

Celia: London, I guess, since it’s closer. Then we’d hit France and go on from there!

Ferris: sounds like a plan!

Ferris: im really happy you said you wanted to go

Celia: Damn, now I kinda can’t wait lol

Celia: Lol think we could go for winter break?

Ferris: oh let me check

Ferris: could definitely get to london and paris during break if ur okay skipping germany til next time 😁

She felt her heart jump a bit when she read that the vacation was actually viable.

Celia: What would your parents say about this??

Ferris: my dad would be fine with it lol he trusts me with travelling and stuff

Ferris: idk about mom. have to work on her a bit but im sure she’ll come around

Celia: If you seriously think you could convince your mom, I can talk to my parents about it tonight!!

Celia: But are you sure you’d be able to talk her into it? I overheard how she was yelling at you on the phone when she caught us...

Ferris: she gets mad but i think she can be reasoned with 

Ferris: im gonna come out to them. abt us. i dont like hiding things from them

Just a minute after she felt elated about the trip, her blood went cold with dread. If he came out to his parents, she'd feel guilty if she didn't do the same.

Celia: Are you sure?? What if they like, disown you or something?

Ferris: i dont think my dad would do that

Ferris: mom might be angry but not for long

Ferris: do u think it’s a bad idea?

Celia: No, I just think it’s really brave, and...

Celia: Well, I guess if you’re brave enough to come out to your parents, I should be too

Ferris: i just wanna make sure they hear it from me and not someone else

Ferris: how do you think your parents will react

Celia: I don’t know, but they both are off work today, so they’re right downstairs

Celia: Ferris, would you like to come out to your parents at the same time as me?

Ferris felt his own heart jump up into his throat this time. _If she does it tonight, I'll do it too_ , he thought.

Ferris: yes. just let me know and i’ll go talk to them

Celia then took a few minutes before replying to mentally prepared herself. The skunk stared at the wall across from her bed for quite some time before finally texting Ferris back.

Celia: Ok, I’ll go do it now. If they take one of our phones away, I’ll see you in school Monday 😘

Ferris: okay. good luck 

The squirrel tossed his phone onto his bed from his desk and stood up, marching downstairs before he had the chance to lose his nerve.

Ferris's father was standing in the kitchen answering some sort of work-related text on his phone. He looked up at his son for a moment.

"Hey, kiddo," he said, looking back down at his phone again. "Happy Friday. How was school?"

Ferris shrugged, leaning against the countertop as he stood near his dad. "S'okay. Listen, dad. Are you busy? I wanna talk to you about something—before mom gets home."

He looked up from his phone again. "Uh, yeah," he said. "I'm off work for the rest of the day. What's up?"

 _Welp. Not much else to do but get it over with, like ripping off a bandage_. "So, I have a girlfriend now… we started dating a few weeks ago now. We're kind of keeping it secret right now, though."

"Oh, champ, that's great!" he said, setting his phone down and patting his son on the back. "But why would you want to keep it a secret? You're eighteen; you're allowed to date!"

"Well, it's… gah."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. He still had no idea how his dad was gonna react to this, but Ferris inhaled through his nose and pushed on.

"Well… I didn't know if you guys were gonna freak out. Remember back when you guys saw me kissing the girl I had over? The skunk? It's her. Celia."

His smile about his boy's first real girlfriend slowly faded. Letting out a sigh, he said, "Yeah, I figured it might be. It's not like you would go from making out with a girl to dating a different one just a week later… I suppose all that matters is that you two like each other. Do you?"

Ferris shifted awkwardly. "I really like her, yeah. A lot. And I think she likes me too. I mean, she must, if she agreed to go out."

He looked up at him suddenly, realizing he wasn't getting chewed out. "You're not mad?"

His face contorted a bit. His head rocked side to side a bit as he thought, then said, "Nah. Love is love, and all that. Can I ask you a question though? Why would you choose a skunk? Like, you're a handsome boy. You could definitely do better… Is… Is it some kind of kink you have for them?"

Ferris blushed furiously under his fur, his brow furrowing. "N-no! Why does everyone think that? I really like her! She's sweet, and funny, and she's been kinder to me than anybody else. We're not going out so I can get my rocks off. Why is her being a skunk such a big deal?"

She chuckled and shrugged at his son. "I don't know, son. I guess, for most people, the draw must be pretty strong to get them to cross the species barrier. I've always thought only a fetish was strong enough to do that. But, hey, if you say you seriously just like her, I'll take your word for it."

He leaned back against the counter. "After all, it's not me you have to worry about telling." He reached over and grabbed a cup of water off the counter. "It's your mom."

Ferris winced at that, his shoulders slumping. "Ugh. Yeah. What do I say to her, dad? She seems like she has a really big problem with skunks."

"Well… to be fair she doesn't have the best track record with them. It goes back to when she was just a girl." He pressed the power button on his phone to check the time. "She'll be home any minute now. You wanna talk to her together, or want me to try and break the news to her alone?"

Ferris sighed deeply. "I think I should do it. I think maybe it might be easier for her to understand if I say it to her."

He slipped his phone out of his pocket and tapped away, shooting Celia a quick text.

Ferris: dad ok about to tell mom

"You, uh, don't have to be there for it if you don't want to. But what do I do if she gets mad? Or tells me I can't see Celia? Because I'm not going to stop dating her because of mom."

He thought for a moment, then said, "Well, if you really do wanna keep seeing this girl… Yeah, I guess I should be here for it. I can kind of put my foot down if she starts trying to put any hard limits on you. But just… be prepared for her not to take it lightly, ok kiddo?"

He leaned back harder on the counter, anxiously running over what he was going to tell her in his head. "Thanks, Dad. I'm happy you can understand. Thanks for having my back."

With that, he heard his mother entering the foyer, keys jingling. He gave another sigh and called out, "Ma! You got a minute?"

His mom stopped where she stood. The two of them had hardly been speaking at all since she caught him on the security camera. The fact that he was breaking their silence told her that he definitely wanted to talk about something involving that night. The expectant look from her husband didn't help either.

"Yeah, but I've got some emails to get to soon," the middle-aged squirrel said. "What do you need?"

The squirrel wanted to get this one over with even quicker than the one with his dad. "Listen, Mom. I got a girlfriend. And I don't think I need to tell you who it is, do I?"

She leveled a glare at her son. "Is it that skunk I caught you groping in our living room?"

"Honey, please…" Ferris's father said, trying to de-escalate things.

Ferris glared back. "If that's what you thought you saw, whatever. But yeah, and her name is Celia. I didn't want to sneak around and keep it from you. You know, kinda like how you didn't tell me about the cameras you were using to spy on me."

She took a couple steps into the kitchen. "I installed those to protect you. And now I'm suggesting you protect yourself, and listen to me when I tell you not to pursue this girl. Not just because she's not your species—which is bad enough—but also because she's a skunk. Listen to me: those things are nothing but trouble."

The squirrel scoffed. He had fully expected to be terrified, but all he felt now was anger. "I wish you could hear yourself. What happened to you to make you like this? I'm eighteen, and you have no right to tell me what to do or who I date. You don't even know her! How the hell can you tell me that she's trouble when you've never even spoken to her?"

"I can tell you she's trouble because all skunks are. Ask any skunk if they've ever sprayed somebody. One hundred percent of them will say yes. And at some point or another, every skunk sprays their partner at least once. It's an inevitability, Ferris! Do you want to be sprayed?!"

"Honey, calm down…"

"Stay out of it, Ed," she told her husband, then looked at her son again. "Being sprayed is the most unpleasant thing you can think of. I'm just trying to help you."

"Jesus, Mom. Maybe saying shit like that is part of the problem. And so what? If you care about someone, you have to live with their flaws, too. You'd understand if you met her. Well, maybe not, if that's how you talk about people just because of their species. It makes me sick to hear that coming out of your mouth. I thought more of you than this, but you're just like everyone else. So, no, I don't want to be sprayed, but it won't kill me. I care more about her than I do about being sprayed."

He exhaled sharply with that, his diatribe over. Ferris really appreciated his dad being there, but he had a feeling this was going to get worse before it got better.

His father had all but cowered into the corner of the kitchen as Ferris went off on the woman. Ferris's mom, for her part, had stood her ground throughout the entire monologue, but cracks in her tough appearance were already showing.

"Ferris," she said, "go to your room. You can't talk to your mother like that. I, for one, have no intention of ever being in attendance at a wedding where my son marries a species as revolting as hers, and that's the end of the discussion. Go."

Ferris's father flashed him a wink to let him know he'd keep trying to talk to her.

Ferris glared silently at her for only a moment before noticing his dad. "Fine. Maybe lose the word 'revolting' if you want an invitation in the first place."

And with that, he left, trying to keep as calm as possible until he was in his room. Closing the door behind him, he leaned against it. He slid down the door until he was seated on the floor. He sighed and pulled his phone out, checking for any messages from Celia about what was happening at her place.

  
———

  
With a heavy sigh and thinking to herself repeatedly that she has to get this over with, Celia stood up, tucked her phone into her back pocket, and headed downstairs. As she descended the steps, she saw that her parents were both sitting on the living room couch, watching TV together. She didn't know if telling both at the same time would make this easier or harder, but the repeated reminder in her head kept urging her forward.

"Mom, Dad," she said loudly and clearly, "I, uh, have an announcement." She was fairly certain that this uncharacteristically proper tone of hers would grab their attention. Apparently it did, because her mom reached for the TV remote to pause their show.

Her father cocked a brow at her. "Sure, sweetie." He turned towards her to make sure she knew she had his attention.

Her mother similarly looked to her after placing the remote back onto the coffee table. "What is it? You sound very serious. Are you in trouble?"

"Dear… Let her say it before jumping down her throat."

"Right. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Celia." She folded her hands, obviously trying not to imagine the worst possible thing.

Celia leaned against the railing as she fought to find the words she'd been planning on saying. She had to keep telling herself that she couldn't back out now.

"I have a boyfriend," she blurted out. After a couple seconds of letting that hang in the air, she added a rather roundabout statement that she hoped would get them thinking. "But, um, you know how there aren't lots of other skunks in school?"

After her first declaration, her parents could tell there was more to it. When she finished it with the question, her mother gave a small nod, not exactly saying out loud that she understood what Celia was trying to say.

Her father, on the other hand, looked confused. "Uh, yeah? So you're dating that one kid, right? I think you told us about the skunk boy. Is he good to you?"

Celia's mother placed her hand on her husband's knee, shaking her head. "No. She means…"

He stared quizzically before his eyes widened. "Oh. Oh, Celia, sweetheart? You're kidding, right? This is some kind of twisted prank?"

She felt her heart drop when her father tried to suggest that she wasn't even being genuine. "No, Dad," she said, "I'm being totally serious."

Trying to avoid further confrontation with her dad, Celia directed her next words to her mother. "I mean, squirrels are pretty similar to skunks, right?" she asked, trying to mitigate their disdain for her choices before it escalated further.

Her father opened his mouth to say something—probably something a little insensitive—before he received a quick elbow in the ribs, courtesy of Celia's mother.

"Sweetie," she said, "I completely understand that you have feelings for this boy. But I'm sure I don't have to tell you how this might be a bad idea. I'm not going to tell you to stop seeing him, but you're going to get a lot more attention drawn to yourself than ever before. I'm worried you might be jumping into something you don't fully understand."

"I've already received some backlash from it—even before we started dating, actually. Remember when I told you a week ago that Tiffany sprayed? Um, that was actually because of him and me. She saw people mocking us, and she immediately sprayed them." Celia swallowed hard. "But still, even after all that, I like him so much that I think it's worth it."

"Oh, sweetie." Her mother stood up and moved to her, giving her a hug, which Celia immediately returned. "I understand. And I want you to know that I support you. Your father and I both do."

She shot her husband a look, and he raised his hands defensively, with a look that all but said "I didn't say nothin'". "Yeah. It'll just, y'know… It'll take some getting used to," he said, defeated. Clearly whatever qualms he felt had nothing on his wife's withering glare.

"I know," Celia said. Finally she let herself start crying as the two embraced, perhaps now out of relief rather than dread. "I've had to get used to it, too. At first I felt really weird about it, but… he and I just get along so naturally. I think you guys should meet him. You'd think he's great."

Her mother squeezed her tightly, gently rocking Celia in her arms. "Of course, sweetheart. We'd love to meet him! You'll have to tell us all about him."

Her father stood and moved to them. "But, Celia. What about his parents? Do they know about this yet? I'm guessing he's eighteen just like you are, but this isn't exactly the norm."

"Oh, right." Celia reached around to her back pocket and pulled out her phone. "He just came out to his parents about us too. Let me see how they took it…" She opened up her texts app and read through what the squirrel had sent her.

Her mother was obviously curious, but kept herself from reading over Celia's shoulder out of courtesy. "You two did it at the same time? That's so sweet!"

Her father kept his distance a bit, still obviously in uncharted waters, but he still placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder to show his support in the small way he could.

Ferris: so dad was cool. fought with mom but im done caring what she thinks. dads talking to her about it now but itll be fine

Ferris: hows it going with your folks

After Celia read her boyfriend's texts, she looked up from her phone and informed her parents of Ferris's situation. "Well, one of his parents took it well," she told her dad, "so that's kinda good. Think I could show him what real hospitality looks like by inviting him over for dinner this weekend?" She directed this question at her mom, as she knew her dad would be less excited about the idea. Her father noticed Celia talking directly to her mother, and took the hint to stay quiet. As she listened to her response, she typed out her reply.

Celia: Mom took it well!

She then angled her screen so that her father couldn't read what she typed.

Celia: Dad didn’t seem as thrilled, but I think my mom scared him into pretending to be lol

"Oh, of course! We would love to have him over, right dear?" her mother chirped.

"What? Oh, yeah, ok," he mumbled, offering no resistance.

"Oh, what should I make? What do squirrels eat? Maybe I should look up some new recipes. Oh, Celia, I'm so excited!" She was starting to work herself up, a sure sign that she was in a great mood.

Ferris: oh thats awesome! im so relieved. it felt good to get it off my chest and i hope you feel the same way

Ferris: i guess that makes us official then huh?

Celia: I guess it does!! Omg this is so weird, it doesn’t feel real...

Celia: It’s so exciting tho!

"I'll ask him, Mom," Celia chuckled at her mom's excess of enthusiasm.

Celia: Oh, and my mom and I wanna have you over for dinner. She’s asking what squirrels eat lol

Ferris: im fine with anything really

Ferris: if i roll up to a spread of nothing but acorns i will take it very personally tho 😂

In his room, the squirrel smiled at his phone screen. He stood up from the door and moved to his desk, sitting in the rolling chair.

Ferris: i wanna have you over at mine too. my sister will be coming home for break soon so maybe we can get together then 🙂

Ferris: ❤️

Celia: Oh, that sounds awesome! Is she accepting too?

Celia: ❤️

Ferris: ya shes nice but she gives me a lot of shit

Ferris: shell like you tho i know that for sure

Celia: Have you told her yet that you’re in an interspecies relationship?

Ferris: haha no not yet trying to think of how to tell her

Ferris: shes cool tho she gets it

Ferris: she had a big crush on a lynx girl we lived near for a long time and i always made fun of her for it

Ferris: never told mom and dad about it tho

Celia: Hahaha that’s cute! I can’t wait to meet her 😊

Following a quick chat with her mom, Celia started typing again.

Celia: Hey, my mom’s talking about dinner again. Does tomorrow night sound good? I can pick you up of course

Ferris: ya! its all going so fast now im a little nervous haha

Ferris: anything i should know? i really want to make a good impression

Celia: Oops, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to make you nervous

Celia: And no, there’s not really anything that you don’t already know... I’m sure you’re already gonna be super polite, but maybe be a little extra cautious around my dad. Not only is he not really a fan of this interspecies stuff, but he also still views me as “his little girl”. So just, be really polite, call him “sir” and stuff, and you probably won’t get sprayed by the end of the night 😂

Ferris: ill be so polite! dads love me

Ferris: i hope haha

Ferris: and its all good i just didnt expect it to be so sudden but im really happy its gone so smoothly

Ferris: might be awkward with my mom but she’ll get over it

Celia: Any chance she’ll, like, forbid you from leaving the house tomorrow night? She couldn’t really do that, could she?

Ferris: my dad is on my side he wouldnt let her get in the way even if she could

Ferris: but no she couldnt thankfully

Ferris: shell just mope and not talk to me until she pretends it never happened

Celia: Lol sounds like a healthy way to cope

Celia: But seriously, I’m sorry you have to deal with that. I’d probably be getting that same treatment from my dad right now, but luckily my mom has him so whipped lol

Ferris: lmao lucky!

Ferris: and ya she can be kinda fucked i think something might have happened to her in the past

Ferris: anyways im really excited to meet your family tomorrow. now i have to agonize over what im gonna wear 🤣

Celia: Hahaha just dress like a proper, nice boy! No need to go too formal, just khakis and maybe a collared shirt :)

Celia: Do you think you’ll text your sister about you and me, or are you gonna wait until you next see her irl?

Ferris: khakis! youre killing me babe!

Ferris: ill probably fire off a text to her she’ll be excited to meet you

Ferris: she LOVES getting up in my business lmao

Celia: Lol she sounds great

Celia: And khakis aren’t that bad !! What else do boys wear? Jeans? Those are way too punk rock for trying to make a good first impression hahaha

Ferris: a pair of unripped jeans is punk rock?? how 1970s of you!

Ferris: i probably have a pair of khakis around. you have a better idea of what would look good to your dad haha

Ferris: ill pick out some stuff to wear now 🙂

Celia got an idea for a dumb prank she could try to pull on her boyfriend, but she didn't know if doing so would make her seem cruel. It would certainly be a fun test of his gullibility.

Celia: Oh, and since it’s a skunk’s house, don’t forget to bring your mask too. Any cloth or paper face covering should do, but don’t bring a full-on gas mask or we’ll get offended

Ferris: haha

Ferris: very funny

Ferris guessed she was kidding, but just in case, he made a mental note to buy masks from the gas station.

Ferris: its getting late but ill let my parents know im having dinner tomorrow

Ferris: well ill let dad know LOL

"Damn," Celia thought to herself, "he saw right through my prank."

Celia: Awh, I’m really sorry you have to sneak around your mom cry

Celia: Maybe if she and I meet me in-person and not through a security camera, she’ll see I’m not so bad

Ferris: thats what i told her

Ferris: once she calms down and realizes im not running away to join a cult or whatever she thinks this is like she’ll come around

Ferris: itll just take a little time

Celia: Maybe I should just try to focus on befriending your dad and sister for now.

Celia: Then, when she sees that she’s the only one in her family who still hates me, she’ll start to warm up

Ferris: she’ll love you, she just needs a reality check lol

Ferris: so when you picking me up? 😉

Celia: How’s 5:30? That should give my mom and me plenty of time to get dinner ready

Ferris: youre cooking for me? 😍

Ferris: sounds good tho ill make sure im ready to go

Ferris: might run out and get a gift for your parents what would be good?

Celia: Omg only if you really wanna suck up to them

Celia: Which, hey, isn’t the worst idea. But also you don’t even have a car lol

Ferris: i got all day tomorrow ill make it work haha

Ferris: what would impress them

Ferris: i really want them to like me

Celia: Ferris you really don’t need to get them anything. Tbh that might just make you look like a suck-up lol

Ferris: bleh im just too nervous youre right

Celia: Don’t worry about it babe !! It’s gonna go fine

Celia: So long as you don’t forget your gas mask lol

Ferris: you said no gas mask!!

Ferris: sending me lots of mixed messages there love

Celia: Lol you’re a dork 😜


End file.
